Cytellix

MSP SPOTLIGHT: Go Beyond Baseline Security.

Wed, 30 Aug 2023 16:51:44 GMT

94% of MSP clients say they would switch MSPs for a better Cybersecurity solution ¹ .

Introduction

As an MSP, you serve a crucial role as a technology partner to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), giving them the peace of mind that their business is running efficiently. However, the evolving threat landscape and required digital initiatives have increased the exposure of SMBs to cyber risks, necessitating a higher level of protection, one they may not even realize they need. This blog will explore the challenges MSPs face in providing holistic cybersecurity support to their SMB clients and discuss how a programmatic-optimized approach can help bridge the gap, ensuring enterprise-level protection without breaking the bank for SMBs, while adding revenue opportunities for MSPs.

Current MSP Model

MSPs are indispensable for SMBs, offering valuable IT services and tech strategies that give them the luxury to focus on their core business functions. As cyber threats become more sophisticated, SMBs find themselves in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. In response, they turn to their trusted MSP partners for support and protection. Innovative MSPs are meeting this challenge head-on, offering many of the core cybersecurity technologies as a baseline. But even the most diligent efforts present cost and execution challenges. MSPs have an opportunity to expand their services for SMBs and amp up the level of protection. Increased complexities in the threat landscape along with mounting compliance regulations and disparate technologies have left MSPs in information overload on knowing how best (and easily) they can bring those services to market for their customers.

What are SMB clients asking for?

SMBs, like larger enterprises, face a constant barrage of cyber threats and often must adhere to compliance requirements. In fact, the impact of cyber attacks as a percentage of revenue for SMBs is actually larger than enterprises. They also face exactly the same challenges as enterprises; limited budgets, lack of resources, and a shortage of specialized expertise. This leaves SMBs vulnerable to regulatory fines and a prime target for cyber attacks. For instance, according to the Ransomware Taskforce businesses with fewer than 500 employees were hit by 70% of the ransomware attacks in 2021.)

Given the maturity of enterprise cyber programs in today’s landscape, hackers are setting their sights on SMBs as they will likely be easier to penetrate, not to mention having more at stake for a breach and possibly more likely to give in to demands. As these attacks are proliferating, SMBs are left asking “How do I manage my cyber risk without breaking the bank?”

2 Distinct, But Interconnected Sides of the Coin

Much like enterprises, and as noted above, SMBs not only have threats to contend with but also adherence to compliance mandates. Regulatory compliance is oftentimes more critical for an SMB depending on their industry or how they fit into part of a supply chain, for example, if they are doing business with the DoD and must comply with CMMC. They typically would need a divide-and-conquer approach (with an already small team) to handle compliance readiness and threat management as two distinct initiatives. This adds an additional strain on already sparse resources and skill sets, plus added tech investments to support both sides of that coin. An integrated approach to Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance (GRC) and Managed Detection and Response (MDR) or Extended Detection and Response (XDR) both from a programmatic and tech perspective can be much more advantageous to any organization, SMB or otherwise.

MSPs Face Challenges as Well

MSPs, while committed to providing cybersecurity support, encounter their own set of challenges. They manage multiple clients with diverse complexities related to threats, attacks, and compliance requirements. Their current approach often relies on point solutions such as endpoint security, firewalls, identity management, and compliance tools. However, these fragmented tools offer only a patchwork stopgap solution, are expensive to maintain, and are difficult to scale. Moreover, disparate tools do not provide the holistic visibility required to assess their clients' overall security posture and compliance status.

MSPs are left grappling with critical questions:

What should our first action be in response to a cyber incident?
What specific cyber and compliance pain points are our clients facing?
Where are the security and compliance gaps in our clients' infrastructure?
How can the limited resources of SMBs be leveraged to achieve the best outcomes (after all, great security programs require action on the customer’s part!)?
Where are their security/compliance gaps?
How can we help to reduce their cyber/compliance risk…?

Time to Rethink: How can we better serve our SMB clients?

To address the challenges faced by SMBs and MSPs alike, a paradigm shift is necessary. Instead of relying solely on point solutions, MSPs should adopt a programmatic approach to managed services. This approach offers a multitude of benefits, including:

Better Visibility and Enhanced Protection : A programmatic approach allows you to gain comprehensive visibility into your clients' network and security environment, enabling you to offer better protection against cyber threats.

Reducing Cyber and Compliance Risk : By gaining a holistic view of your clients' infrastructure, you can clearly and easily isolate gaps – and address how to close them. You can identify vulnerabilities, provide actionable insights, and help your clients implement effective cybersecurity strategies.

Increasing Bottom-line Revenue : Understanding the specific gaps and requirements of your clients allows you to streamline workloads and offer tailored services. This, in turn, leads to increased revenue and long-term client satisfaction.

Gaining a Competitive Edge : Adopting an advanced cybersecurity approach will set you apart from your competitors. Clients are more likely to choose MSPs that can provide comprehensive protection and strategic guidance, and approach cyber risk from both a business and technical lens.

Enterprise-Level Protection at a Fraction of the Cost : With a programmatic approach, you can offer SMB clients enterprise-level protection without the need for exorbitant investments in multiple point solutions, or plug into what you already have in place to maximize existing investments.

The Future of Cybersecurity for MSPs. Give your SMB clients the enterprise-level cybersecurity protection they need.

MSPs must evolve their cybersecurity support for SMBs to address the growing threat landscape effectively. By shifting from a fragmented approach to a programmatic model, MSPs can offer better protection, reduce cyber risk, increase revenue, and gain a competitive edge.

GRC + MDR/XDR. Cost effective. Easy to implement.

For MSPs looking for a turnkey solution to provide enterprise-level protection easily and affordably, Cytellix offers a comprehensive cybersecurity platform with its Cytellix Cyber Watch Platform (CCWP™). It is the ONLY place where GRC and MDR/XDR are delivered as a single integrated solution for a holistic, real-time, view of your client’s cybersecurity posture. Cytellix was recently recognized as a sample vendor in the Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for Cyber Risk Management, 2023. Cytellix's advanced capabilities empower MSPs to deliver integrated cybersecurity and compliance support, making them invaluable partners for their SMB clients.

In a world where cyber threats continue to evolve, MSPs play a crucial role in safeguarding SMBs. By embracing innovation and adopting a programmatic-optimized approach, MSPs can ensure that their clients receive the protection they need without straining their budgets. The time to act is now, and with Cytellix, MSPs can be the trusted cybersecurity allies that SMBs rely on to navigate the digital landscape securely while growing their business.

¹ Source: Vanson Borne Report - The State of SMB Cybersecurity in 2022

The Clock is Ticking for CMMC 2.0: Here’s Everything You Need to Know – START NOW

bberger@cytellix.com (Brian Berger) — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:30:02 GMT

The Department of Defense (DoD) has formally presented the CMMC regulation for official evaluation, marking the start of its journey toward formal announcement. Every regulation proposed by the executive branch, including this one, undergoes scrutiny by OIRA, a division of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The significance of this step is that the previously mentioned "delays" in the CMMC process were due to the time taken for the DoD to forward the rule to OIRA. With this action now taken, the subsequent stages of the rulemaking procedure are underway. Nevertheless, due to the intricate nature of federal rulemaking, several more stages need to be navigated before the CMMC becomes a part of contracts.

The following scenarios should be considered for preparation for compliance and certification for the Defense Industrial Base (DIB).

Scenario 1: Proposed Rule
Submission to OIRA: The Department of Defense (DoD) has officially submitted the CMMC rule for regulatory review to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
Review and Publication: After OIRA's review, which takes an average of 66 business days, the CMMC rule is expected to be published in late October 2023.
Public Comment Period: A standard 60-day public comment period will follow, ending in December 2023.
Finalization: The CMMC rule will be published as a "proposed rule", which means it will only become effective after the agency responds to public comments in a final rule. Based on historical data, the average time for DoD proposed rules to be published as final rules is 333 business days. This means the CMMC final rule is expected between February and April 2025 .
Phased Roll-Out: The DoD plans a 3-year phased roll-out for CMMC contract clauses. Assuming the final rule is published in Q1 2025, all relevant DoD contracts will contain CMMC by 2028.
Scenario 2: Interim Final Rule
Immediate Effectiveness : If the CMMC rule is published as an "interim final rule", it will be effective before the agency responds to public comments . This means the rule would be in effect and appear in contracts in Q1 2024 .
Rarity of Interim Final Rules: Such rules are rare and bypass the usual democratic process of "notice and comment" rulemaking. They are typically granted in urgent situations, like the need to enhance national security.

So when should you start preparing?

Before we start with the background and changes, let’s talk about the "Big Elephant” in the room. Clearly, the updated compliance and certification process developed by the DoD and the non-profit organization liaisons has been long overdue with a lot of anticipated deadlines that never materialized. And with the latest announcements it does seem to be mildly reminiscent of the movie comedy and colloquial meaning of Groundhog Day. Since the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry I found humor in relativity, not cynicism.

Opinion: This is different and the information we have in the DoD supply chain must be protected from our adversaries. This is a serious issue and needs clear and precise guidelines as the supply chain will not spend money on the protection of the information that protects national security unless they must as it is deemed as a complex undertaking. That’s an unfortunate reality. We have seen the start and restart of the cyber programs for DoD for the past 5-years, what makes this different?

The implementation of the CMMC rule in contracts will be phased in over a period of 3 years, with all relevant DoD Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contracts containing CMMC by 2028. For a company with 50-100 employees operating in the DoD supply chain, it takes an average of 12-18 months to prepare for assessment and audit for eventual certification, with certification being the ultimate requirement for compliance. Therefore, the time is now to start the process if you plan to hold government contracts in 2024/2025. There are also varied flow down requirements that need to also be taken into consideration.

Understanding Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM)

There is now the ability to present interim status vs 100% compliance as we have with the current DFARS and NIST requirements. These interim reports can be handled in the traditional manner by presenting a Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) that have a less than 180-day completion date for allowed baseline gaps. Unallowed gaps will have a “No POAM” designation and need to be implemented. If you have any doubts, work with a highly skilled 3 ^rd party who has expertise in these standards and a track record of enabling comprehensive successful standards-based cyber programs. The information presented by the suppliers in POAM’s or claiming 100% compliance will be evaluated and can and will likely trigger audits if certain high-level cyber controls are not met or the 100% compliance score creates suspicion of a false claim. Be careful to present accurate and validated information.

So, what does this all mean?

You must be compliant with DFARS clause 252.204.7012 and NIST 800-171 today. This is a requirement of your current contracts, and the False Claims Act applies to all cyber compliance representations. If you are not compliant, you could be subject to civil penalties and criminal charges.

You need to start preparing for CMMC 2.0 today. The deadline for the final rule is 18 months from now, and it will take an average company in the DoD supply chain 12-18 months to become assessment ready. Waiting is not an option. Waiting is a bad idea. Why you ask? It is very clear that most suppliers and Small and Medium Businesses are not cyber ready and nowhere near compliant with any cyber framework. The timeframe for a typical business to understand, develop and implement full compliance is more than 1-year assuming they have the skills and personnel to complete the objectives. CMMC 2.0 clearly aligns with DFARS and NIST, so it is the best way to protect your organization's sensitive data. Don't delay, start preparing today!

*If you have any questions, please reach out to our experts – info@cytellix.com

Cytellix® Names Security Industry Veteran Walt Czerminski as CEO

Wed, 30 Nov 2022 17:53:48 GMT

Seasoned C-suite executive brings over 25 years of leadership experience to drive growth of Cytellix's revolutionary SaaS cybersecurity platform.

ALISO VIEJO, Calif., Nov. 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytellix®, a cybersecurity SaaS and managed services company focused on integrated GRC and XDR, announced today that veteran cybersecurity technology executive Walt Czerminski has been appointed as CEO. Brian Berger, who has led and grown Cytellix as President and CEO from its conceptional vision to a now award winning patented innovative SaaS platform company, will continue as President and Board Member, working with Walt to strategically grow Cytellix world-class products and services.

Czerminski brings over 25 years of executive experience and has built out the technology organization for several industry-leading companies. A seasoned executive and security expert, Czerminski has held CIO, CTO, and CISO executive roles at companies including State Street Bank, EmpathIQ, Brown Brothers Harriman, Brandes Investment Partners, CP Consulting Group, and EY. He previously served in an advisory role for Cytellix and will now lead the company into its next wave of development and growth.

"We are excited to have Walt join our team bringing a wealth of executive experience and "know how" to lead Cytellix through its next phase of growth. Cytellix has developed a unique and robust turnkey cybersecurity platform which provides a new way to manage and deploy real-time cybersecurity capabilities. With Walt's leadership we are looking forward to increase awareness, new partnerships and substantial growth." said Founder and Chairwoman, Martha Daniel.

The Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal (C-CWP™), which recently released version 3.0, is a first-of-its-kind cybersecurity SaaS platform that brings together best practices, compliance, risk management, and managed detection response under one umbrella. By integrating leading MDR/XDR controls with GRC drivers, clients can know their real-time security posture and uncover enhancements for managing and deploying cybersecurity capabilities, risk awareness, and compliance – all tailored to their specific environment and needs.

"I am thrilled to work with the team at Cytellix," said Walt Czerminski, CEO. "The rise of GRC has become a major driver of cybersecurity programs. I am confident Cytellix's patented C-CWP platform will shape the future of the cyber industry and vastly improve the outcomes clients can achieve. I look forward to guiding the company, and our clients, on that journey."

The Cytellix patented SaaS platform leverages the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to deliver a full spectrum of cybersecurity technology, compliance, and risk management solutions to clients. Cytellix proactively identifies, detects and responds to threats in any environment, while creating real-time, actionable insights on cyber risks. Cytellix gives clients peace of mind knowing that their cybersecurity program is always on and continuously optimizing.

To learn more about Cytellix, or to schedule a demo, visit cytellix.com .

About Cytellix

Cytellix is a first-of-its-kind, patented SaaS platform that brings together cybersecurity, compliance and risk management under one, fully integrated, umbrella. They know their clients' "real security posture" and can provide new ways to manage and deploy cybersecurity capabilities, risk awareness and compliance with a plan tailored to their clients' specific situation and needs.

Press Contact
Name- Greg Clawson
Email- gclawson@cytellix.com
W e bsite- www.cytellix.com

SOURCE Cytellix

Top 3 Signs Your Cybersecurity Isn't Up To Snuff

bberger@cytellix.com (Brian Berger) — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 16:13:20 GMT

Technology is a magical thing. Thanks to its advancement, we can now store billions of data sets in the cloud that can be accessed from just about anywhere. Businesses have quickly started to rely on clouds, networks, the Internet of Things, and more to keep their processes streamlined. Though it is a wonderful thing, this cloud-based business world does have its downfalls. Cybercriminals have been cracking codes and profiting from weak security solutions for years. Many businesses don't realize they're in danger of attack until it's too late. Here are three signs that suggest your company's cybersecurity isn't up to snuff.

Your Network is Not Secure

The first red flag to look out for is your network. Firstly, does your company have their own private network? If you do, is it secure? Many business owners are lulled into a false sense of security because nearly all networks are classified as "secure." What they don't realize is that there are many, many different levels of security when it comes to networks. The most secure networks have many layers of security protocols in place at the edge of the network and throughout it. Here are a few things to look for:

Firewalls
Anti-virus and anti-malware software
Network segmentation
Access control
Secure cloud storage
Data loss prevention plans and systems
Virtual Private Networks (VPN)

There are many more moving parts to a truly secure network, but these are some of the fastest and easiest to spot. If you're missing any of these key players, chances are good that your network isn't as secure as you might think. Network Situational Awareness is key to understanding and protecting your infrastructure from cybercriminals. You should have a continuous view of the entire network to spot any abnormal happenings or unusual behavior analytics. The more safeguards you have for your network, the harder it will be for unauthorized visitors to get their hands on your sensitive data. Network Situational Awareness is absolutely key to protecting your business. Do a deep dive into your network to see if you have everything you need to make it truly secure. If you wind weak spots or blind spots, it's time to call in the experts to help you better your system.

You Do Not Have A Cybersecurity Continuous Monitoring System

Another immediate red flag to look out for is lack of continuous monitoring solutions. Cybersecurity continuous monitoring enables awareness capabilities to quickly access a stream of real-time data reflecting the state of risk to your security posture, the network, endpoints, and even cloud devices and applications. Cytellix has created an all-in-one, 360-degree view of the entire company called the Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal (CCWP) . This always-on solution acts as a visibility dashboard, allowing you to see all aspects of the company from one view. It will monitor behaviors, network security, new devices, potential weaknesses, and more for you and can even implement solutions on your behalf. The Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal keeps an eye on everything so that you don't have to. When you have continuous cybersecurity monitoring, you'll find abnormalities or new weaknesses almost immediately so that you can make corrections as needed. The stronger your monitoring system, the less likely you are to suffer a cyberattack. To put into perspective exactly how much a solution like the Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal can help, let's look at what it has to offer:

Quickly identify a steady-state that is used as a baseline for what is normal within the system.
Patrol and protect endpoints and perimeters.
Detect breaches as soon as they occur.
Adapt to changing environmental infrastructure to tune and refine results .
Report, map, and visualize data from the entire business. A visual expression of your network and current IT infrastructure.
Alert and warn about anomalies and prioritize them by urgency.
Receive visibility of every device , and every connection, on your network, so you have a complete and accurate inventory of all routes and appliances that run on it.

It's Been Awhile Since You've Assessed Risk And Compliance

The last thing you want to look for to determine if your cybersecurity measures are adequate is how often you assess risk and compliance to security regulations. If your company can't remember the last time these things were looked at, you're likely at risk for cyberattack. Frequently assessing your performance is key to spotting issues and patching holes before they become problems. Managing risk can be a huge undertaking, especially if you work with third-party vendors. If you're looking to accurately assess the risk involved with your current infrastructure, call in the experts like the Cytellix team! Governance and Risk Management Solution will measure and "rank" an organization or family of organizations cybersecurity posture to ensure that they are not a weak link in your security system. Cytellix can identify high-risk 3rd parties, assess their cyber risk, potential vulnerability impact, and monitor controls to keep risk low.

While you're assessing risk, you may as well assess your compliance to cybersecurity regulations as well. Professionals like Cytellix can handle that for you as well. We will take a look at your cybersecurity solutions to make sure you are in compliance with industry standard frameworks such as: ISO27000, NIST CSF, PCI, SEC, NIST-800-171 and CMMC and others. Regulated industries are required regulations, so it's good to get a jumpstart on preparing now. We will assess your current system and offer suggestions to help you meet standards. We can even help you design, build, and implement new solutions that we suggest based on our assessment. When you have a better understanding of risk and your current cybersecurity standards, it's easier to prepare for the future and improve the business.

There are, of course, many other indicators that your cybersecurity is not up to par, but these three are some of the most fundamental and easiest to spot. When in doubt, it's always a good idea to contact experts in the field who can do a complete scan of your infrastructure and let you know what you're doing well with and what needs improvement. Cytellix has helped hundreds of companies improve their cybersecurity and we can help you too! Contact our team at (949) 215-8889 or leave us a message at https://www.cytellix.com/contact. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Life Science, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes GRC , EDR , MDR , XDR , SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

Which Devices Are Most At-Risk For Cyber Attack?

bberger@cytellix.com (Brian Berger) — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 16:33:40 GMT

Cybercriminals are no dummies. They often have a background in some sort of computer science or software development in preparation for cyber attacks. To break through codes, you need to be at least a little clever. Because they're smart, it makes sense that they find trends and ride them. For example, if they notice that a particular type of device is easier to hack into, they will likely stick to those types of attacks. Unfortunately, nearly all devices can be hacked, but some are much more common than others. Let's talk about three of the devices you're likely in close contact with that are at risk of data breach or cyber attack.

Laptops/Computers

First on our list is a household and workplace staple - laptops or computers. Think about how frequently you use a laptop for personal things outside of work, and how vital computers are to your job. There are billions of laptops or computers in the world today, each posing an opportunity for attack. Hackers will go after personal laptops to find passwords, sensitive information, access to various accounts, credit card information, location, interests, and more. Work or company laptops will usually contain all of this information and sensitive data about the company including passwords, protocols, client information, finances, IP, future plans, etc. There's a lot of valuable information on computers and cybercriminals are very aware of it. Laptops are particularly at risk if the owner uses an unsecure network/hotspots or stores data on an ill-protected cloud. Network situational awareness is key to spot weak points and catch a hacker in the act.

Smartphones

Smartphones are typically with their owners at all times. People have an arguably unhealthy attachment to their phones in some cases, and rely on it for all kinds of things. Your phone can be an alarm, a calendar, a GPS, a form of communication, a pocket-sized computer, and more. Many people store information in their phones or utilize apps like mobile wallets, mobile banking, password vaults, and more. Especially due to the prevalence of remote working, many companies provide employees with a "work phone." or subsidize mobile phone use of a personal device. As with laptops, these mobile devices tend to have at least some sensitive information in them from contacts to documents to emails and more. Cybercriminals will happily steal data from either your personal or work phone, so be sure to have the proper precautions in place. Avoid using public wifi networks (especially on work phones), require 2-Factor Authentication whenever possible, and always check on app permissions about sharing data. It's also wise to never store passwords or confidential information in your phone, and secure it with a passcode and/or facial recognition.

Point Of Sales Systems

The last device is not something you'll have at home, but it is something that any retail worker comes across. A point of sales system is where payment processing occurs. Credit card readers, checkout registers, self-checkout, etc. all fall under this umbrella. Considering that the main purpose of POS systems is to carry out transactions, they are a big target for cyber attack. A successful breach of a POS system will give the hacker access to bank information, contact information, and other valuable details about the company and every customer. We've all heard about huge retailers becoming victims of a POS breach, and thousands or millions of customers are affected. These breaches are extremely costly and have been known to ruin a store's reputation.

Cytellix can help your business protect any and all devices included in your IT infrastructure. We set up continuous cybersecurity monitoring, endpoint detection and response (EDR) that tracks all processes, detects attacks within the network as well as any endpoints (devices). Our personalized solutions will secure devices from attack, even for employees working from home. We can also secure your network, enforce the cloud, and detect any odd behavior as soon as it occurs. Speed is essential to stopping an attack, and we make it easier to react almost immediately. Learn more about Cytellix at https://cytellix.com/ and contact us at info@cytellix.com to get started!

5 Risks Associated With Third-Party Vendors and How Cytellix Can Help

bberger@cytellix.com (Brian Berger) — Fri, 15 Jul 2022 16:48:15 GMT

Many businesses work with third-party vendors in one form or another. It doesn't make financial sense to manufacture and store everything you need in-house unless you're a powerhouse enterprise. Even then, you can get high-quality products or services for less if you opt to work with third-party vendors. While there are many benefits to this type of work relationship, several risks can be involved. With the added steps involved in a vendor-business relationship, you create more opportunities for things to fall through the cracks. Risk management is key to avoid costly problems. With risk management services from Cytellix, you can protect your data, finances, productivity, and efficiency. Here are some of the top risks we protect against.

Data Accuracy and Quality

One of the risks that come with working with third party vendors is a drop in the accuracy and quality of data. As the old adage says, "if you want something done right, do it yourself." Of course, most businesses physically cannot do everything by themselves, hence why third party vendors are so popular. That being said, you have to give up some control in terms of data. The vendor is responsible for keeping track of their end of the deal, and you just have to trust them to hand over accurate data. If you want certain reports, you may or may not be able to get them depending on the data collection of the vendor company. If you are fortunate enough to gain access to the data you request, you cannot check the validity. You must trust that the vendor uses accurate processes to collect information and that they are sharing the true values with your business. Let's say you make metal widgets and rely on a third party vendor for the machining or final assembly. That vendor could say that all the parts check out and are good to go, but you really cannot validate their statement. Hopefully, your contracts allow private inspectors or auditors to confirm for you; otherwise, you could run into serious trouble. If you install these widgets into aircraft that you are manufacturing and something goes wrong, it's your contracts on the line, not the third-party vendor's. By giving up control of the data checks and quality validation, you risk someone else's mistake negatively impacting your business.

Actionability of Data

The second risk you face when working with third-party vendors is the actionability of any and all data you receive from them. Actionable data is information that can be acted upon or that gives insight into future, proactive actions. As a business owner, you know the types of data that you want to collect that will be actionable. You likely have processes in place specifically to collect, organize, and analyze this actionable data so that you can keep improving your company. When you rely on data from a third-party vendor, it may not always be actionable in a variety of ways. Firstly, as we previously discussed, unless contractually obligated, the vendor may not be required to collect any data that you require. They may have a different set of KPIs to look at, and they focus solely on those. Without the data you need, you may be limited in insights to make future plans. In terms of more immediate actions, you have even less control. A vendor is a completely separate entity that has autonomy over itself. You may notice a problem in the data, but you have no way of putting solutions in place; that's up to the vendor, and you need both contractually enabled changes or have a very flexible vendor.

Lack Of Continuous Monitoring

Cytellix understands how important it is to monitor all aspects of your business continuously. When you have "eyes" on all aspects all the time, you significantly reduce the risk of things falling through the cracks. The Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal was created to give clients a 360-degree view of their business’s inner workings. However, because a vendor is a separate company, continuous monitoring does not apply to them. You can continuously monitor your relationship with the vendor and any transactions taking place, but you cannot see inside their business to know anything about risk management, cybersecurity, and other things that ensure safety. Continuous monitoring is key for spotting problems before they cause chaos. We always suggest finding vendors that deploy their own measurable cybersecurity practices and continuous monitoring as you do so that you don't need to worry about the vendor electronically transferring new risk to your business.

A Slower Risk Assessment Process

We all know that processes take longer whenever there are more steps or people involved. Businesses almost always require numerous "stops" as something travels through management. Risk assessment is the same way; the more departments you have to check, the longer it takes. A vendor would add another layer to risk assessments, slowing them down and giving cybercriminals more options to attack before risks are identified and removed. Risk management is necessary to protect data and make good business decisions, and the more vendors you work with, the longer you'll have to wait for each analysis to be finished. Time is money, especially when data and sensitive information are at stake!

More Opportunities For Security Breaches

Finally, working with third party vendors can create serious risks to cybersecurity. Yes, you and the vendor work together, but you each have your own cybersecurity plan. You could have top-tier protection with all the bells and whistles, only to be breached because a cybercriminal found a way in via the vendor. A team is only as strong as the weakest link, so if the vendor is lacking in the cybersecurity field, they put you at risk by association. Hackers can break into the vendor and then find their way into your business through them. All of the safeguards you have in place will be useless if a hacker gets in from the back end. A risk management process is essential if you want to find vendors that are as security-conscious as you. We encourage you to take a look into the following cases of vendor-related security breaches from the past few years:

Equifax, 2017 - roughly 147 million users' information was leaked, including names, social security numbers, contact information, and even bank account numbers.
Target, 2013- around 41 million payment accounts were leaked as well as personal information for roughly 70 million customers.
General Electric, 2020 - bank account numbers, passport numbers, contact information, and other sensitive data of employees past and present were leaked.
Instagram, 2020- thousands of Instagram accounts were compromised when passwords were leaked.

As you can see, this is an ongoing problem in the business realm that can be detrimental to companies and consumers alike. It's critical to ensure that vendors meet your standards and expectations regarding cybersecurity measures, or your business could be the next big scandal!

Cytellix has been leading the charge in the cybersecurity realm for years. We've worked with hundreds of companies to help them build their security systems, manage risks, and keep their information safe. We offer the patented Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal to offer risk management and real-time continuous monitoring 24/7. This turnkey solution is unlike any on the market and identifies risks and problems, and offers implementation of solutions on your behalf. Our state-of-the-art security measures will safeguard your company as effectively as possible while monitoring all connections for bad actors, data leakages, and user behavior changes. Even government agencies trust us to protect their most sensitive data from prying eyes. Get in contact with us here today!

The Top Industries at Risk For Cyber Attacks in 2022

Sat, 07 May 2022 00:51:47 GMT

As the world becomes increasingly digitized, more and more industries are at risk for

cyber-attacks and cyber risk in 2022 than ever before. While no industry is immune to

cybercrime, certain industries are particularly vulnerable due to the sensitive nature of their

data.

Here are the top industries at risk for cyber-attacks and who are most in need of a robust cyber

security plan:

Healthcare: Healthcare organizations are prime targets for cybercriminals due to the sensitive

nature of patient data. Hackers can exploit this data for financial gain or cause havoc by

disrupting critical medical operations.

Financial Services: Financial institutions are also attractive targets for cybercriminals due to the

large amounts of money involved. Hackers can use stolen financial data to commit fraud or

blackmail organizations for financial gain.

Retail: Retailers are often targeted by cybercriminals due to the large amounts of customer data

they collect and store. Hackers can exploit this data for identity theft or fraud or disrupt

operations by shutting down online stores through DDoS attacks.

Technology: Technology companies are increasingly targeted by cybercriminals due to their

valuable data. Hackers can exploit this data for financial gain or cause havoc by disrupting

critical operations or stealing intellectual property.

Telecommunications: Telecommunications companies are also attractive targets for

cybercriminals due to the large amounts of customer data they collect and manage. Hackers can

exploit this data for identity theft or fraud or disrupt operations by shutting down phone and

internet service.

Education: Education institutions are often targeted by cybercriminals due to the sensitive

nature of student data. Hackers can exploit this data for financial gain or cause havoc by

disrupting critical administrative operations.

Government: Government organizations are attractive targets for cybercriminals due to the

sensitive nature of government data. Hackers can exploit this data for financial gain or cause

havoc by downloading and distributing sensitive or confidential information.

How Can Companies Protect Themselves from Cyber Attacks?

As the world becomes increasingly digital, the threat of cybercrime grows. Companies must

constantly adapt to protect themselves from cyber threats with cyber preparedness 2022.

There are many ways companies can protect themselves from cybercrime. One way is to

educate employees about cyber security. Employees should be taught how to spot phishing

emails and other signs of a cyber-attack. They should also know how to keep their passwords

safe and secure.

Another way companies can protect themselves is by investing in cyber security software. This

software can help to detect and prevent cyber-attacks.

Companies like Cytellix are disrupting the industry by bringing together the full spectrum of

cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management solutions under one umbrella. Our new

software approach to cybersecurity involves a patented SaaS platform designed to correlate

compliance data, IT, cloud, and IoT assets into 24/7 advanced threat detection.

Cytellix combines the power of in-house, advanced AI capabilities and data from a third-party

security product into highly automated services that can be tailored to the needs of SMBs. We

can deliver it as a turnkey solution integrated with enterprise-owned assets and more, offering a

robust cyber security solution to large and small businesses.

Finally, companies should have a plan in place for what to do in the event of a cyber-attack. This

plan should include steps for how to contain the attack and how to recover from it.

By taking these proactive steps, companies can help protect themselves from the growing

threat of cybercrime and defend against the loss of sensitive internal and external data. Learn

more by contacting our talented team at Cytellix here.

Venture Debt Financer River SaaS Capital Welcomes Cytellix Corporation to its Growing Portfolio

Wed, 20 Apr 2022 17:32:00 GMT

Ohio investor provides uniquely positioned cybersecurity software firm with crucial capital to drive growth

New ParaVenture debt financer River SaaS Capital has added software company Cytellix Corporation (Cytellix) to its expanding portfolio of high-growth companies, providing crucial capital to help the Arizona firm scale its patented cybersecurity SaaS platform. River SaaS Capital has agreed to provide up to $5 million in financing based upon the terms of the deal.

Launched in 2017 as the cyber division of Information Management Resources, Inc. (IMRI), Cytellix Corporation year-on-year growth enabled a spin-out in 2021 and recently completed a major rebranding effort, highlighting their innovative SaaS platform that brings cybersecurity, compliance and risk management under one patented platform.

“We are very excited to welcome Cytellix to our portfolio,” said River SaaS Capital Chief Investment Officer Wendy Jarchow. “There are very few companies capable of combining such strong SaaS expertise with decades of proven cybersecurity experience.”

“As we searched for a partner to provide growth capital, we were immediately attracted to River SaaS Capital because of their knowledge in our space,” added Cytellix President and CEO Brian Berger. “They understand how SaaS businesses like ours operate and how to provide the kind of flexible support we need to scale rapidly.”

Cytellix’s patented SaaS platform correlates cyber compliance data, IT, cloud and IOT assets into a 24/7 advanced threat detection and response platform. Combined with in-house AI solutions and data from third-party security products, the platform can be customized to fit the needs of virtually any user, from small business owners to massive enterprise clients.

This unique solution immediately attracted the attention of River SaaS Capital, whose team has developed a strong understanding of the cybersecurity industry landscape.

“We always try to offer value to our portfolio companies beyond simply writing a check,” said Jarchow. “In this case, we have access to strong cybersecurity experts who can help provide strategic guidance and reach.”

“It's rare to find an investor that specializes in supporting SaaS Companies and even more rare to find one who also has strong knowledge of our specific industry,” added Berger. “We have a great partner in River SaaS Capital, and we look forward to working together to take Cytellix to the next level.”

***

About River SaaS Capital
River SaaS Capital provides alternative venture financing to growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses in the U.S. River SaaS offers fast, flexible financing solutions, typically providing non-dilutive, revenue-based financing to qualified new borrowers in 36-48 month term loans and growing with its portfolio companies over time (via either debt and/or equity). For more information, check out our funding solutions and follow @riversaascap on Twitter.

About Cytellix Corporation
We believe cybersecurity is more than just using technology to solve problems. That is why we have created a first-of-its kind SaaS platform that brings together the full spectrum of cybersecurity, compliance, and risk management solutions under one umbrella.

Our mission is to protect businesses small and large from threats unseen. Not just today, but for the future. With a plan of action that minimizes time and cost disruption and patented technology that evolves as quickly as the threat evolves, preventing attacks before they occur.

We provide a highly-optimized, continually adjusting security framework that supports organizations through their entire life cycle. And we invent technology that solves not just security and compliance problems, but business problems. In real time. At all times.

For more information, please visit https://www.cytellix.com or email: pr@cytellix.com

With Increased "Work From Home" Employees, How Can Companies Improve Cybersecurity?

Sat, 08 Jan 2022 15:00:00 GMT

The COVID-19 pandemic made work environments change in almost an instant. Offices were forced to close down to keep employees safe and socially distanced. For many companies, a large number of employees are still working from home, at least part-time. Some businesses even chose to become permanently remote to save on overhead costs. While working from home is more convenient for employees, it can spell trouble for maintaining proper cybersecurity hygiene as a whole. Think about it; each employee is working from their own networks, in different areas of the state, country, or world, and networks and user behavior cannot be as meticulously analyzed as it could when all processes were happening under one roof. Cybersecurity is more important than ever to avoid data leaks, system breaches, and other cybercrimes. Here are a few ways you can improve your cybersecurity for employees working from home.

Insist that all work be done from company devices that are equipped with a VPN

The most important tip that we can give you when it comes to protecting your company's information is to ensure that all remote employees are working only from company-provided devices. There is no reason to overlap personal and work tasks on phones, tablets, or laptops. That being said, it is your responsibility to provide these devices and enforce that they are to be used only for work. Make sure you are an administrator on all devices so you have access to settings that you don't want to be changed. In addition, you want to install a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on all computers or laptops. A VPN provides a secure and dedicated communication path for the laptop to work under, preventing hackers from accessing sensitive information or tracking the device. Make sure to invest in a solid VPN provider that is secure and well-trusted. Cybercriminals are crafty, so you want a VPN service that can stand the test of time.

Encrypt all devices to protect data

Before you give each remote employee a device equipped with a VPN, you should encrypt all data on it. Encryption translates plain text data into code that only those with authorization can translate back. Sensitive data should be encrypted from everyone except the highest-level employees, but other information can be visible to the entire company. Encryption takes standard data and morphs it into ciphertext that can only be decrypted with a permission key. This allows sensitive information to be transferred via the internet with a reduced risk of clear text view from cybercriminals. There are several types of encryption to choose from, so pick the one that will protect the data of your business. Encryption is particularly important for businesses that store client information such as hospitals, banks, government agencies, and more.

Require multi-factor verification/login

Another way companies are protecting data is by requiring multi-factor verification. Let's say a remote employee wants to access the database of customer records from home. Firstly, that should be encrypted. If that employee has permission to decrypt data, you should still require at least two other sign-in methods. You can have your multi-verification set up to lock after so many failed attempts. Not only will this deter hackers, but it will also alert the leaders of the company when a cyberattack is attempted. With the technology available to us, we can create all kinds of verification processes that require several passcodes/pins, SMS verification, email confirmation, and more. The more walls you put between the outside world and your important data, the safer working from home will become.

Be selective with which employees can access sensitive data

If you're like most companies, you have a hierarchy of employees. When you work in-person, there are some tasks and meetings that can only be done by high-level workers. You should keep this same mentality when you make the transition to remote working. Give your senior employees access to the more sensitive information while barring other team members from it. Basically, if a worker doesn't need the information to complete their daily tasks, they shouldn't be privy to it. Provide access only to data that is relevant to each department to prevent potential problems. The more people that can get into secret files, the more points of entry cyber criminals can try to get through. Keep the hand close to your chest as they say.

Install anti-virus software or custom cybersecurity solutions on all devices

Finally, you need to ensure that any and all company devices have a solid antivirus program installed. Better yet, get a customized cybersecurity solution that provides complete cyber awareness. Cytellix has worked with hundreds of companies, including some top government agencies that require the utmost digital protection. Our team can create cybersecurity solutions that meet your exact needs and allows the business leaders to keep an eye on all goings-on, even when employees work from home. Our Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal gives you a 360-degree look at the entirety of your business. You can spot weaknesses in your security, identify problems before they arise, and instantly implement solutions. No other cybersecurity specialist offers an all-in-one platform as we do. With all of your employees working from home, it's more important now than ever to continuously monitor your network, systems, processes, and data. When you work with Cytellix cybersecurity experts, you get top-of-the-line software that is leaps and bounds above other affordable solutions. When you work with the best, you get the best.

As you can see, there are many steps you can take to protect your business and clients as your team works from home. For the highest-level protection, work with cybersecurity experts like Cytellix to get customized solutions designed and implemented just for you. Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation. Call (949) 215-8889 to speak with our team today and learn more at https://cytellix.com/ .

The post With Increasing Occurrences of Virtual Employees, How Can Companies Improve Cybersecurity? appeared first on Cytellix .

CMMC 2.0: Here’s Everything You Need To Know

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 21:15:00 GMT

Newly released CMMC 2.0 Makes Changes and Creates More Uncertainty of What to Do Next?

Before we start with the background and changes, let’s talk about the "Big Elephant” in the room. Clearly, the compliance and certification process developed by the DoD and the non-profit organization liaisons has been mishandled. I am being polite here, and not intending to insult anyone directly however, this does highlight the movie comedy and colloquial meaning of Groundhog Day . Since the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, I found the humor not cynicism. We have seen the start and restart of the cyber programs for DoD for the past 5-years, what makes this different?

Opinion: This is different and the information we have in the DoD supply chain must be protected from our adversaries. This is a serious issue and needs clear and precise guidelines as the supply chain will not spend money on protection of the information that protects national security, unless they must. That’s an unfortunate reality.

The DoD announced a change to CMMC 1.0 and renaming as CMMC 2.0. Within this change are a host of enhancement and implications for the supply base at a high level. I will outline the changes as directly as possible. The main change is the addition of self-assessment similarly to NIST 800-171 under DFAR 252.204-7012. In addition to the self-assessment is the requirement for annual affirmation by the company leadership. This is where the rubber really hits the road. Affirmation under the False Claims Act , where both prosecution and insider complaints will be addressed. I suggest all suppliers read this link. In addition to these, changes in 2.0 will be lower costs for suppliers as certification by a 3rd party is no longer required in many cases.

There is now the ability to present interim status vs 100% compliance as we have with the current DFARS and NIST requirements. These interim reports can be handled in the traditional manner by presenting a Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM) that have a less than 180-day completion date for allowed baseline gaps. Unallowed gaps will have a “No POAM” designation and need to be implemented. If you have any doubts, work with a highly skilled 3rd party who has expertise in these standards and track record of enabling comprehensive successful standards-based cyber programs. The information presented by the suppliers in POAM’s or claiming 100% compliance will be evaluated and can and will likely trigger audits if certain high level cyber controls are not met or the 100% compliance score creates suspicion of a false claim. Be careful to present accurate and validated information.

There will be a rulemaking process that is expected to take place for 9+ months and the CMMC 2.0 will not show up in acquisitions until the rulemaking process is complete. There is an expectation that once the rulemaking is complete, the effects of and implementation will likely be swift and mandatory.

So, what does this all mean? Reality, if you are a DoD supplier or have plans to be one.

YOU MUST be compliant with the DFARS clause 252.204.7012 and NIST 800-171 under your current contracts. ( NIST SP 800-171 & CMMC Interim Rule Effective November 30, 2020 - Cytellix ).The False Claims Act applies today to all cyber compliance representations. You should start now preparing for CMMC 2.0 as it clearly aligns with DFARS and NIST. Waiting is a bad idea. Why you ask? It is very clear that most suppliers and Small and Medium Businesses are not cyber prepared and nowhere near compliance with any cyber framework. The timeframe for a typical business to understand, develop and implement full compliance is more than 1-year assuming they have skills and personnel to complete the objectives.

*If you have any questions, please reach out to our experts – info@cytellix.com

Hackers Are Getting More Advanced: Stay One Step Ahead

Tue, 30 Mar 2021 15:00:00 GMT

Individuals and enterprises alike are well aware that technology is almost constantly changing and advancing. We are able to do things today that past generations would have never thought possible! While technology is hugely beneficial to companies, its volatile nature is proving to be problematic at times as well. Businesses need to stay on their toes to adapt to changing software and solutions as quickly as possible. Cybercriminals are busy finding ways to make this more advanced technology a tool for their own use. If you don't stay at least one step ahead, hackers can wreak havoc in your databases. Here are a few tips to stay protected!

Know What You're Fighting Against

The first thing you have to do before you can combat a problem is identifying the problem. You need to know what it is, where it exists, and how serious it is. Cybercriminals are extremely tech-savvy and are well-versed in even the most elite software. Today's online criminals use sophisticated software, bots, viruses, Trojans, and phishing techniques. Unlike hackers of the past, these new-age criminals can automate the entire process; they can be infiltrating your system while they sleep! Passwords are no match for hackers, so you'll need to amp up your cybersecurity game if you want to stand a fighting chance. Once these cybercriminals get in, they don't always steal data these days. Some new attacks now do data manipulation which is far harder to spot than a full-fledged data leak. By changing some numbers here and some addresses there, you could be looking at millions of dollars lost and just as many angry customers. The crimes are getting stealthier, so you need to be more alert than ever.

Continuous Monitoring Is Key

One of the most fool-proof ways of avoiding serious cyberattacks is installing a cybersecurity continuous monitoring system. Your business undoubtedly has many moving parts. If you rely on your employees to keep track of everything, something will eventually fall through the cracks. If you put monitoring in the hands of cybersecurity software leveraging, AI, or other cybersecurity solutions, the odds of missing something important drop exponentially. The Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal (CCWP) puts all the power in your hands. You get a 360-degree view of the inner workings of your company from one convenient platform. With the CCWP, you have constant access to everything that's happening in the company. We can customize the platform to track exactly what you need to stay on top of the game. Our revolutionary technology can even implement solutions on your behalf! When you have a cybersecurity continuous monitoring system, you will be alerted of any abnormal happenings in your systems, networks, and clouds. We understand that cybersecurity requires proactive measures rather than reactive, so our Cyber Watch Portal will let you know if it finds any weakness so that they can be corrected ASAP. We'll be watching 24/7, and hackers won't stand a chance!

Work With A Team Of Experts

Depending on your company’s size, you may find overseeing cybersecurity daunting; problem solved with our easy-to-use Cyber Watch Portal. If cyber seems like an overwhelming concern, or if you simply want to ensure maximum protection against cyberattacks, we highly suggest partnering with a team of experts. Cytellix has been protecting companies big and small for decades. Our technologies grow and change with the cadence of your company and our team adapts accordingly. The Cytellix team can manage your cybersecurity solutions so that you have even less to worry about. We will make updates as necessary based on our findings. We work closely with each client to determine the best course of action when creating a cybersecurity solution package. Our staff is always more than happy to answer questions and provide insight that will improve your understanding of the climate around you. We are just a call away at 1.949.215.8889.

Training Is Essential

Training is absolutely essential when it comes to protecting yourself against cyberattacks. The entire team needs to be trained on technologies to understand the process. You want all data to be entered in the same way in the same place so that it is secure and easy to find. You must train the team on specific processes, technologies, and policies to ensure that everyone in the company is on the same page. Create a very clear hierarchy of access and outline who can access what, when, why, and how. The more uniformly a task is done, the less likely it is to get messed up. Train employees enough that the procedures become second nature. If you rely on certain nomenclature, drill it into the team repeatedly. If you have a strict policy about changing passwords every x-amount of weeks, be sure to follow through if it's not done. You can also consider training the higher-ups to access and interpret the data from the Cyber Watch Portal so that all responsibility is not sitting solely on your shoulders. Our portal is extremely user-friendly and was designed specifically to make your life easier. With the right training, anyone from your team can take the helm and keep watch for problems or security breaks.

It is possible to close the gap between the known and unknown cybersecurity gaps in organizations of any size. We can create custom solutions that bring areas of your company to life that you never looked into before. Our experts will help you identify areas of weakness and will work with you to implement effective and long-lasting solutions. No matter what size your company is, we can help you improve your cybersecurity to protect against hacks. Give us a call at 1.949.215.8889 to speak to our team, or visit https://cytellix.com/ to learn more about us. We look forward to hearing from you soon!

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

The post Hackers Are Getting More Advanced: Stay One Step Ahead appeared first on Cytellix .

The Hidden Aspects of Cybersecurity

Fri, 12 Mar 2021 16:00:00 GMT

It should come as no surprise that businesses are flocking to the cloud and other digital platforms to replace their outdated data management systems. The internet is a wonderful thing, and the capabilities that come with it are unmatched. Unfortunately, many businesses head online without taking the proper precautions. The internet has plenty of hackers, all of whom are looking for weak spots in data collections so they can make their move. Many business owners believe they are prepared against cyber attacks, but few are as secure as they would hope to be. Cybersecurity companies like Cytellix are here to ensure that you have no weak link, no open door, and no unprotected file floating around in the cloud. Let's take a look at some of the weakest areas of cybersecurity we often see.

Payment Processors

One of the most sought-after areas to attack are payment processors. We've all heard news stories about credit card information being stolen from retail stores, major banks, and more. Hackers will always aim to find money, so payment processors are particularly at risk of cyber attack. Hackers are adapting as technology advances, so we aren't always as safe as we think. Here at Cytellix, we are constantly looking towards the future to figure out what hackers might try next. By staying several steps ahead, we are able to safeguard any and all payment-related programs from breech. Consumers are able to make payments in many ways, several of which involve digital processes. Credit cards, debit cards, online payment, direct deposits, mobile banking, and more are all viable areas for hackers to target. It's crucial to pay extra attention to these areas to protect both company and consumer finances. When a person or business gets their credit information stolen, it is a process and a half to fix. Not to mention the lawsuits that will inevitably come if it's determined that the business did not have the proper safeguards in place. Cytellix is committed to protecting financial data at all costs, so we go the extra mile when it comes to setting up and managing cybersecurity services for payment processors.

Information Databases

When hackers aren't successful at stealing credit and banking data, they'll go for the next best thing; personal information. Identity theft is far more common than it should be. Back in the day, most identity theft cases came from someone losing an ID or being robbed. Now, with most information available somewhere in the cloud, hackers can steal thousands of identities without leaving their homes. It's shocking how frequently we put personal information online. Whenever we create online accounts, you're asked for, at the bare minimum, your name, and email address. Without the proper cybersecurity in place, your customers' valuable personal information is up for grabs. It's more important than ever to protect personal information from cyber-attacks because more and more important duties are heading online. Banking, insurance, taxes, the entirety of your smartphone's data, they're all on the cloud, and therefore all vulnerable for attack. Even though you might be asking for "general" personal information, hackers can get a lot out of it. For example, if someone can connect a name with a birthdate, cybercriminals can likely figure out their social security numbers. People of the same birth year have the same first two sections, and many websites ask for the last four digits as a login. Add them together, and you have easy access to someone's identity!

Email Systems

While email addresses can also be included in the "personal information" section, some hackers are out for them specifically. Malicious malware is sent most commonly through emails, the recipients of which could have been found through weak security spaces. In addition, emails can be hunted down by cybercriminals, only to be sold to businesses for unsolicited email lists. This is illegal but happens all the time. If hackers get into business emails, there's a chance they can then get into shared drives on Google or similar platforms. Once they're in there, the havoc they can cause has no limits. They can email clients from your accounts, change passwords, delete or corrupt documents, and more. Cytellix is fully aware that emails are valuable to cybercriminals, so we make it our mission to safeguard them. With our help, you can feel confident that internal emails and customer emails will be kept confidential as intended. Even if they don't cause too much damage, security breaches will destroy any trust that your customers have in you. It's extremely challenging to rebuild that relationship, so the best thing to do is enact cybersecurity services ASAP. Hire a team you can trust to build out and manage your cybersecurity system. With us, all emails will be safe and sound!

Manual Processes

One of the easiest things for hackers to break into is anything done manually. Human error is a business's worst nightmare, especially online. It's not wise to trust your employees to follow a rigorous protocol for tasks they often do. Odds are, something will fall through the cracks, opening a window of opportunity for cybercriminals to sneak in. We always suggest automating processes as often as possible because computers don't forget. If you need all documents to be saved in a particular folder, create an automation for it. That way, none of your valuable data can be stolen because an employee accidentally saved a Google Doc to the wrong place. The less human interaction you can make with digital tasks, the better. Of course, most human errors are completely accidental and nothing to get upset about, but an accident can result in a lot of headaches for you in the wrong situation. Cybersecurity companies will be able to look at your current processes and find weak spots vulnerable for attack. Cytellix does a thorough analysis to make sure we don't miss anything. We'll discover weaknesses caused by human error and help implement permanent solutions.

If you're ready to start working with one of the most trusted cybersecurity companies in the business, call Cytellix today! Our team of experts has been entrusted to protect some of America’s biggest companies, including the US Army, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, and NASA. We will curate solutions specifically for you, making sure to lock up your data, so it's airtight. Call us today at (949) 215-8889 to get started.

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

The post The Hidden Aspects of Cybersecurity appeared first on Cytellix .

5 Ways Our Cytellix Cybersecurity Watch Portal Is Changing The Industry

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 16:00:00 GMT

The Cytelli x Cyber Watch Portal (CCWP) is a patent-pending platform from our team of experts. We've seen the shortfalls in the industry, and we've put our hearts into creating a simple solution. The CCWP is our "single pane of glass" that lets you look into every area of your business to manage and implement cybersecurity processes. All cybersecurity companies offer ways to keep track of your data or monitor segments of the network, but only Cytellix provides a 360-degree view from a single platform. What makes our CCWP so unique? Let's take a look!

It's Making Cybersecurity More Convenient

The most obvious benefit of the Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal is the convenience it offers. As we're sure you know from experience, dealing with any kind of technology can be stressful and confusing, especially if it's not something you work with on a daily basis. Many cybersecurity companies can set you up with fantastic technology, but you'll have to learn to navigate several software platforms and build expertise. You have enough to worry about with running your business without the added hassle of learning new technology. You'll spend hours mastering the process of monitoring, checking, and implementing solutions. Cytellix understands that time is money, so our CCWP is a single platform for you to learn that has everything you need right there in front of you. You don't need to worry about transferring data from one software to another, or managing multiple dashboards, so you can spend more time reviewing the data rather than shuffling it around.
Implementation and Monitoring All In One Place

Cytellix's Cyber Watch Portal is the first to combine Risk Management, Implementation, and Cyber-Monitoring in one place. You can track data and stay aware of any security weaknesses or breaches, and you can do things about them right away. Our portal offers several options for troubleshooting, and it can recommend solutions for you and can implement the solutions on your behalf. You have control of everything in one place, so you can find a problem, see what can be done, and execute the plan without even leaving the page you're on. We don't see the point in making this complex process more difficult, so we created the CCWP with our clients in mind. It's been very well received, and we are continually working to make it even better!
It Makes Data More Accessible

For some reason, most cybersecurity companies like to make it difficult for customers to get a hold of their data. Some companies even require that you go through them in the form of a request. If you want to check your cybersecurity right now, that type of process would never work. We believe in total transparency, and we're here to make your life easier, not harder. The Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal has every piece of information you could need or want access to. We customize the portal for each client based on your business, cybersecurity services, and protection level. We hope that our innovative approach to cybersecurity monitoring will make its way into the industry more and more. It's unfair to clients to withhold information, and it can be detrimental to their business. By making the platform easy to use and completely comprehensive, any business owner has the power to monitor their security measures. It's our hope that other companies will follow suit and come up with solutions that business owners feel confident using.
Continuous Monitoring At Your Fingertips

One of our CCWP’s most complimented aspects is the real-time continuous monitoring that you get with it. You can check for security updates anytime, anywhere. Data is stored in real-time, and you'll get alerted about any security breaches. You can pop into the software to see how things are going. Check as many times as you'd like! Via the patent-pending Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal, you’ll have complete visibility of all vulnerabilities, threats with remediation process built-in, and situational awareness by severity. Our capabilities include expert cyber assessments and enterprise-grade tools that identify if recognized threats or malware IP address spaces can be reached from within your network and if any internal network infrastructure participates in malicious activity, such as operating in a botnet. Get continuous monitoring of cyber threats, network situational awareness, and security weaknesses.
You Can Take Action When A Problem Is Detected

Our systems detect any threat intelligence is made actionable by correlating a comprehensive index of an enterprise’s IP address space against known threats. The cyber intelligence we gather can be integrated with other security tools to maximize effectiveness, resulting in an enhanced security posture. Thanks to our revolutionary technology, threats can be identified, and solutions can be put into action almost immediately! Never before has the process been so efficient. You're at the helm of the all-in-one ship, and you can make decisions right away. This can prevent cyber-attacks or at least lessen the severity of any that somehow get through your protections. Of course, with the cyber continuous monitoring, we offer, most clients catch any issues before hackers do. Still, it’s comforting to know that you can integrate our CWWP with tools that will immediately get to work backing up your protective measures. The less time between discovery and repair, the less data is at risk.

Cytellix created the Cyber Watch Portal to put more power in the hands of business owners. We hope that our innovative platform makes managing cybersecurity easier than ever. Our clients have seen great success while working with us, and even the US government is partnered with us! Hopefully, cybersecurity will become more accessible to all, and more cyber firms will create better, faster, and more effective platforms. If you're ready to switch to an all-in-one, turn-key solution, contact the Cytellix team! Call us at (949) 215-8889 to get started today! Learn more about how we can help you at www.cytellix.com .

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

The post 5 Ways Our Cytellix Cybersecurity Watch Portal Is Changing The Industry appeared first on Cytellix .

A Closer Look At CMMC & NIST 800-171 Preparedness

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 12:00:00 GMT

We all know that regulated Federal Government information is safeguarded to prevent cyber-attacks from the adversaries of the United States, but did you know that any and all sensitive data, government-owned or not, must be protected by adhering to a specific set of rules? Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is information that is sensitive and relevant to the national security interests of the United States, but not under strict Federal regulation. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, the Executive Agent is responsible for creating and implementing unclassified data standards and overseeing compliance. CUI is considered any potentially sensitive, unclassified data that require controls in place to define its proper safeguarding or dissemination. What is NIST 800-171, and how can you meet the requirements? Let's take a look!

What is NIST 800-171?

NIST is the acronym for National Institute of Standards and Technology, and 800-171 is a specific publication. NIST 800-171 governs Controlled Unclassified Information in Non-Federal Information Systems. Essentially, 800-171 is a list of standards that must be met to adequately safeguard and distribute personal or sensitive information that is not officially classified. NIST 800-171 was first created in 2003, shortly after the Federal Information Security Management Act was passed. Following a series of serious cyberattacks, it became clear that cybersecurity needed to be ramped up. NIST regulations have changed slightly since the beginning, particularly for certain government agencies like NASA, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the General Services Administration (GSA). Commercial supply chain organizations are also required to adhere to these new guidelines.

All contractors awarded contracts to provide products or services that require the use of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is ordered to comply with DFARS 252.204-7012
Over 100 controls must now be addressed, as well as the cybersecurity posture of the supplier’s network or system across the 14 security domains defined in NIST SP 800-171
The obligation of proof is now placed on the supplier and their entire supply chain.
Failure to comply will result in a Corrective Action Report (CAR), loss of contract, or potential legal actions.

NIST 800-171 was designed to get all companies on the same set of guidelines for cybersecurity. Prior to the publication, each company could make its own rules. When everyone operates differently, there is no uniformity, and each company will have weak points that are easy to attack. By regulating the process, the government is now confident that sensitive data is under lock and key.

What is CMMC?

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification is part two of NIST 800-171. CMMC is a program initiated by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in order to measure their defense contractors’ capabilities, readiness, and sophistication in the area of cybersecurity. The guidelines set forward in NIST 800-171 are the baseline for CMMC. Using CMMC, it can easily be determined precisely how prepared a company is. There are five levels in total, with Level 1 being baseline NIST requirements and Level 5 being highly advanced with custom processes and cyber technology that is constantly working. As of September 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) began requesting information that contains CMMC specifications. It is clear that they have a timeline for getting the CMMC into all contracts by 2026. At the moment, CMMC applies to Department of Defense prime contractors and subcontractors. The ultimate goal is to have it apply to each and every contract that handles any sensitive information.

How Can Cytellix Help?

It can be daunting for companies and contractors to figure out how compliant they are to these regulations. Cytellix works with several government agencies, including the Department of Defense (DoD), so our team knows the guidelines like the back of our hands. We offer a collection of services that will check off the necessary boxes. We create and implement cybersecurity solutions that will help you meet the expectations of these relatively-new guidelines. We'll check out your current situation, find your weak spots, and propose solutions to build up your security systems. The more cybersecurity you can implement now, the more prepared you will be as the DoD cracks down on NIST 800-171 now and CMMC in the near future. It's far easier to be prepared early than to play catch up when the new contracts come out. By working with our team, you will have a personalized package that can grow and change as you do. It's expected for more versions of CMMC to be released prior to its complete implementation, and Cytellix will be there to make sure you stay on track. Cytellix is available to provide a detailed security services assessment. Our goal is to ensure you are fully aware of the steps required to remain compliant, cyber prepared for certification, and provide a plan of action that will minimize time or cost disruption.

The concept of NIST 800-171 and CMMC can be a bit challenging to grasp. The key takeaway is that the Department of Defense (DoD) is putting regulations in place to strengthen security surrounding sensitive but unclassified data. This will protect contractors, companies, and consumers from cyber-attack, and it will keep information away from hackers inside and outside of the US. Preparing for CMMC can be tricky, but Cytellix is here to help. Learn more about our NIST 800-171/CMMC services at https://bsyl.ink/NIST800-171 . If you're ready to increase your cybersecurity and become more compliant with these guidelines, call us at (949) 215-8889. We look forward to hearing from you!

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

The post A Closer Look At CMMC & NIST 800-171 Preparedness appeared first on Cytellix .

Solve Problems Before They Arise With Network Situational Awareness

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 15:00:00 GMT

As a business in 2022, you can't escape the many uses of the internet and networks. Cloud-based storage, applications, and processing have completely changed the game, making completing tasks easier, faster, and more efficient. You would be hard-pressed to find any successful company that does not use some form of digital solution. While most networks are identified as "secured," do you have all the protection you need against cybercriminals? The best way to avoid problems is to catch them before they start. You can identify weaknesses in your network with Network Situational Awareness and continuous cybersecurity monitoring. Here's what this revolutionary cybersecurity solution can do for you and a few things it will help you watch for.

What is Network Situational Awareness?

Network Situational Awareness is precisely as it sounds; being aware of the state of the network your business operates on. Networks are spaces that allow communication between multiple devices. Data is collected and stored in the network and is only accessible to those devices within it. Companies or any business that deals with a lot of sensitive information turn to private networks to keep this data safe. These networks are secured with passwords, pin codes, firewalls, and more security checks to prevent those outside the company from gaining access. Like all other aspects of digital technology and cybersecurity, even the most secure network can have weak spots that put you at risk for a cyberattack. Network Situational Awareness is a system of continuous cybersecurity monitoring that can keep an eye on the network as a whole to identify and flag problems. By staying aware of your network’s status, you can stay one step ahead of hackers to keep valuable information safe. Network Situational Awareness is very involved because of all the moving parts in a network. With the help of cybersecurity experts like Cytellix, you can easily monitor the goings-on from one place.

Who Needs Network Situational Awareness?

Any business that uses a network would greatly benefit from Network Situational Awareness. Leaders in the company need to be able to look at how the network is performing currently versus how it is expected to perform. You need to look at the past, present, and future state of the system to determine how you're doing security-wise. Many people erroneously believe that they are secured enough that there's no reason for concern. The fact of the matter is that the more the network changes, the more likely something is to fall through the cracks. When you're managing fifty or hundreds to thousands of devices on one network, you need to ensure that every possible security measure is being taken. Basically, the more you rely on your company network to do daily tasks, the more important it is to have Network Situational Awareness. Cybersecurity monitoring software and processes can proactively scan every inch of the network to detect problems that would be missed by traditional networking software. Find weak spots before hackers do and avoid data breaches, external attacks, and more.

How Can Cytellix Help?

Cytellix offers state-of-the-art Network Situational Awareness solutions to businesses across all industries. Our program has several overall goals that will protect you, your company, and your clients' information. These goals include:

Proactively identify and monitor 100% of network connections and devices.
Understand all aspects of the network environment — physical, mobile, virtualized, IoT, and cloud (private, public, and hybrid)
Expose potential problems, such as unplanned Internet connections, unmanaged devices, and unsecured ports
Monitor in real-time for instant visibility and immediate response
Alert by severity for threats, leaks, and nefarious activity

Cytellix created a continuous cybersecurity monitoring system especially to keep an eye on your network. Running in an always-on mode, Cytellix Continuous Monitoring delivers next-generation network discovery, leak path detection, visualization, and analytics to provide network situational awareness — including awareness of your organization’s presence in private, public, and hybrid clouds. Our cybersecurity continuous monitoring has saved clients from catastrophic cyberattacks, data breaches, and network takeovers. We can create personalized solutions for any size business. We even help multi-location businesses keep data secure in company-wide networks or clouds. When you work with Cytellix, you can feel confident that you will be alerted to any cyber or network weaknesses immediately and receive implementation plans to fix said issue.

In addition to Cytellix Continuous Monitoring for Network Situational Awareness, we also offer custom, high-tech cybersecurity solutions including Risk Management, SIEM as a service, the patent pending Cytellix Cyber Watch Portal, and more. Our turnkey solutions will keep you several steps ahead of cyber criminals so that you can spend less time worrying about your data and more time using it to better your business. Reach out to our team today to get started down the path to improved cybersecurity. Want to get more information? Contact us here today.

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

Cybersecurity in The Manufacturing Industry

Wed, 20 Jan 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Our whole world is relying more and more heavily on the internet and other digital platforms. While this has certainly made life easier and more convenient, it's also created a whole new area of crime: cybercrime. Specific industries are more at risk than others simply due to the nature of the work. As manufacturing becomes more data-driven and proprietary information is leveraged, it's also becoming a larger target for cybercriminals. For an industry that wasn't prepared for the influx of attacks, manufacturing had to adapt quickly and has become a significant risk to US competitiveness. Luckily, there are plenty of cybersecurity options that can save the day.

Why is Manufacturing Under Attack?

As we mentioned, manufacturing is relying more heavily on data than it ever has before. According to the United States Department of Homeland Security, based on the number of reported cyber-attacks, the manufacturing industry is the second most frequently targeted industry in the United States. You may be shocked to hear this, but it does make quite a bit of sense. Since the industry is relatively new to data and digital reliance, they have less cyber professionals thus their processes are weaker. Hackers and cybercriminals will look for any kind of weakness to make their lives easier. Until the industry makes cyber part of their business and technology process, they could be easy targets. It's important to note that smaller manufacturers are more at risk than larger ones. Smaller firms have lower budgets and are typically easier to attack and can be used as a stepping stone to larger companies who they supply. Small manufacturers tend to work with or be affiliated with larger manufacturers, so cybercriminals see an opportunity to steal data from both parties. Smaller companies often feel that they're safe from hackers because they "aren't worth it," when in reality, they're usually the first targets. In any case, the information used by the manufacturing organizations is typically proprietary in nature, and that information in the hands of its competitors or adversaries can impact the future revenues and cause irreparable damage.

Information that is considered confidential comes in many forms. Specially in manufacturing, there are more than 365k companies that support the USA Supply Chain for defense of the nation. The information these companies hold is called Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). In addition to CUI is the process and Intellectual Property (IP) developed by the Supply Chain. Collectively, this information is the primary target of the attackers. Manufacturers must protect both CUI and IP.

How Can You Protect Your Business?

So, how can you protect your manufacturing business from cybercrime? The best course of action is to hire a team of experts in cybersecurity (like Cytellix), to come and evaluate your current situation. We will take a look at your weaknesses and identify any existing threats. From there, we can look at what you use for security, protection, policies, procedures, data, cloud storage, the IoT, and more, and build an affordable and appropriate package with all the services specific to your organization. It's best to make changes now because most manufacturing companies are regulated for cybersecurity such as CMMC which will be mandatory for all 365k supply chain manufacturers by 2026. In addition, NIST 800-171 guidelines must be adhered to. If your company is in a state that has implemented data protection requirements such as CCPA in California, or you do business with European Union Citizens under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or you follow ISO (ISO 27001), then a cybersecurity framework based cyber program should be on your agenda. Cytellix will be able to get you in top shape for CMMC, NIST, GDPR, and ISO preparation for audit and certification when the time comes. It's far easier (and more cost-effective) to prepare now, rather than wait until the mandates have already been made. We offer a unique all-in-one platform that allows clients to understand their cyber weaknesses and monitor cyber-attacks in real-time with everything in one place. You can even integrate our Cytellix Cybersecurity Watch Portal with other tools you may already own to immediately implement solutions! Together, we can keep your manufacturing business safe from cybercriminals.

If you are in the manufacturing industry, the time is now to prepare for stricter data protection regulations. If you make it known right away that you don't make it easy for hackers to get into your systems, you protect yourself from future attacks. You can also use your superior cybersecurity to gain the trust of customers and increase your revenue. Cytellix has worked with hundreds of manufacturing brands in the past, and we can help you too! Call (949) 215-8889 to speak to our team and get started. Visit www.cytellix.com for more information.

Cytellix has expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibility platform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes Automated Cyber Assessment, SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

Want to learn more? Contact one of our talented team members here today.

How Can You Protect Your Business?

Cytellix h as expert capabilities in cybersecurity technology, risk management frameworks (RMF, NIST, CMMC, GDPR, FFIEC, ISO) and provides a complete visibilityplatform that supports: DoD customers, DIB Customers, DoD Supply Chain, and other highly regulated industries (Finance, Automotive, Utilities, State and Local Government). Our technology stack includes Automated Cyber Assessment, SIEM as Service, 24x7 SOC, Vulnerability Management, Real-time continuous cyber monitoring, Firewall Management, and threat hunting and threat correlation.

Want to learn more? Contact one of our talented team members here today.

NIST SP 800-171 & CMMC Interim Rule Effective November 30, 2020

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 18:05:00 GMT

NIST SP 800-171 & CMMC Interim Rule

Department of Defense’s Interim Rule Effective November 30, 2020

On September 29, 2020, the Department of Defense (DoD) released an interim rule that requires all suppliers to have a current assessment on record in the Government Data Base SPRS (Supplier Performance Risk System). This applies to organizations who do not provide commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) items. The rule focuses on DoD’s increased requirements for confirming that contractors are currently in compliance with and have implemented all 110 security controls in National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171. There have been a number of cases of high-profile cyber incidents involving defense programs that requires suppliers in the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) proof of compliance and/or proof of advancing compliance. CMMC is doing a phased to rollout that is expected to take up to 5-years. Until the complete roll-out, the interim rule is in effect.

DoD has interpreted “implement” to mean that a contractor must create a System Security Plan that explains whether the contractor is in compliance with each of the 110 security controls and a Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) that describes how and when the contractor will attain full compliance for any control that is incomplete. Incomplete controls are any control that there is no proof, evidence or artifact that can verify the control is adequately implemented.

What does this mean to suppliers within the DoD supply chain? The DoD is checking SPRS and any supplier on a new contract must have a current assessment ”fresher than 3-years old” backed by a gap analysis, System Security Plan (SSP) and Plan of Action and Milestones (POA&M) with actionable plans to become in compliant quickly. The DoD will perform Assessments (audits) of the information provided in SPRS for suppliers they consider are handling sensitive information that may be critical to the program. Flow-downs to subcontractors, for non-COTS suppliers, must be enforced and those suppliers must post in SPRS as well. A contractor may not award a subcontract unless the supplier is in SPRS with a current assessment, and validation of an accompanying POA&M and SSP.

Procedures for Contract Awards:

Contracting officer shall verify the summary level score of a current NIST SP 800-171 Assessment, for each covered contractor information system that is relevant to an offer, contract, task order, or delivery order posted in SPRS. Prior to:
Awarding contracts, task orders or delivery order to an offeror or contractor that is required to implement NIST SP 800-171 in accordance with DFARS clause 252.204.7012: or
Exercising an option period or extending the period of performance of a contract, task order or delivery order with a contractor that is required to implement NIST SP 800-171 in accordance with DFARS clause 252.204.7012.

How long you do you have? November 30, 2020 or within 30-days of your completed assessment to post in SPRS. After November 30, 2020, option-year exercises of an existing contract, require this as well. The key message prior to CMMC certification is that suppliers must be prepared for an audit and the self-assessment / attestation of compliance will be tested for accuracy. Act sooner than later as preparation and proof of compliance and have actionable remediation steps. This is not a simple paperwork exercise!

Assessment requirements (summary)

Assessment is a review of SSP associated with the covered contractor information system(s)
Conducted leveraging the DoD Assessment Methodology
Preparation for a DoD Assessment
Review Assessment
Artifact review to verify documentation and implementation per the SSP

As with previous communications, falsifying records can result in different outcomes depending on the breach or loss of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). These include: Loss of contract, corrective action report, punitive damages to criminal prosecution. Remember compliance with NIST SP 800-171 and the future certification under CMMC, requires having all your documentation, technology, vulnerabilities and cyber-monitoring in place. You must have proof of compliance, manage the CUI access, understand threats, leaks, know when your under attack, be able to define if information has leaked from your company, identify the severity of a breach and be able to notify your prime contractor and the DoD of any breach within the notification period. In direct terms, understand your vulnerabilities, monitor for attacks, have control of all logs and external / internal threats and have an actionable model to stop data leakage from occurring in all areas of your business. Get help, be precise, and work with subject matter experts, real cybersecurity is above the common IT services paygrade.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our Team – info@cytellix.com

COVID-19 Remote Working Leveraging NIST/CMMC Cyber Guidance

Tue, 31 Mar 2020 21:26:00 GMT

COVID-19 Remote Working Leveraging NIST/CMMC Cyber Guidance

NIST SP800-171 and CMMC best practices enclosed provide guidance to meet compliance requirements for remote working. The talented Cytellix Corporation cyber analysts prepared the following guidance. Please take advantage of this valuable set of insights to support your organizations needs for safe remote working and cyber compliance: "Its just good cyber hygiene"

Remote Work Cybersecurity Concerns

Working from home, along with other forms of remote work, can present many challenges for organizations trying to balance security concerns with the ability to operate as effectively as possible. The NIST SP 800-171 and now CMMC standards for cybersecurity define several best practices that help to secure access to systems and data, as well as the practices needed to continue business operations by remote workers.

Practices directly related to NIST SP 800-171/CMMC (the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification)

Secure connections to your environment from the outside

If employees require access to systems and/or data that reside at company facilities, maintaining the security of those connections is a top priority. Remote access extends the security control enabled on-premise to remotely connected systems, but different risks need to be mitigated with expanded connectivity.

Use VPN/HTTPS to ensure connections and communications are protected SC.3.190 – Protect the authenticity of communications sessions.
Ensure secure authentication methods for remote access connections and enforce strong encryption for transmitting data in remote access sessions AC.3.014 – Employ cryptographic mechanisms to protect the confidentiality of remote access sessions.
Ensure VPN connection are configured to prevent split tunneling SC.3.184 – Prevent remote devices from simultaneously establishing non-remote connections with organizational systems and communicating via some other connection to resources in external networks (i.e., split tunneling).
Ensure network connections are terminated once communication sessions end SC.3.186 – Terminate network connections associated with communications sessions at the end of the sessions or after a defined period of inactivity.
Enforce security for remote access sessions and monitor remote access activity AC.2.013 - Monitor and control remote access sessions.
Use a limited number of remote access control points (entry points into the environment ) AC.3.014 – Route remote access via managed access control points.
Require multi-factor authentication for all remote access IA.3.083 – Use multifactor authentication for local and network access to privileged accounts and for network access to non-privileged accounts.

Consider and authorize high-privileged remote access to both systems and data, following the least privilege principle.

High privileged access carries inherent risks that are amplified when extended over remote access. With unrestricted high-privilege access, a compromise of a system admin account may result in unchecked lateral movement of attacks by external threats in your environment. Limiting the scope of high-privileged access as much as is feasible, for both systems and data, helps to mitigate the risks related to compromise of high-privilege accounts.

Review authorization for access to systems from remote locations AC.3.021 – Authorize remote execution of privileged commands and remote access to security-relevant information.
Review authorization for access to sensitive data from remote locations AC.3.021 – Authorize remote execution of privileged commands and remote access to security-relevant information.

Ensure procedures are in place for the handling of sensitive data (controlled unclassified information, federal contract information, personal identifiable information, and other confidential/proprietary data)

Measures for secure handling of sensitive data should cover operations and activities both inside and outside controlled facilities and spaces. Certain types of data have more directed requirements for handling (e.g. CUI/FCI), but organizations should determine how other types of sensitive data should be handled—from receiving and processing, to storage, and disposal/destruction.

Establish CUI handling procedures for alternate work sites (including teleworking). Consider behaviors such as where/how data is stored, how physical media with sensitive information is stored and disposed of, and PE.3.136 – Enforce safeguarding measures for CUI at alternate work sites. MP.2.119 – Protect (i.e., physically control and securely store) system media containing CUI, both paper and digital.
Control CUI/sensitive information flows—what systems that information is allowed to move between, and how that data moves. AC.2.016 – Control the flow of CUI in accordance with approved authorizations.

Establish and enforce guidelines for system and device security

The systems used for remote work, whether company provided or BYOD, should have a level of security enforcement to mitigate risks from unauthorized installations and working in unsecured spaces and networks. Also, with corporate provided systems seeing more general use in remote work scenarios, control over physical media use help reduce risk of malware attacks and data breaches.

Control the use of external systems (including BYOD). Remote workers should use approved methods of collaborating, especially when dealing with sensitive information. Ensure cloud and SaaS based collaboration tools are functional while enforcing security. AC.1.003 – Verify and control/limit connections to and use of external information systems.
Use mobile device management to control/manage laptops and smart phones/tablets. AC.3.020 – Control connection of mobile devices.
Ensure inactivity screen-lock is enabled AC.2.010 – Use session lock with pattern-hiding displays to prevent access and viewing of data after a period of inactivity.
Ensure use of portable storage devices is controlled AC.2.006 – Limit use of portable storage devices on external systems. MP.2.121 – Control the use of removable media on system components.
Prevent the remote activation of collaborative devices (webcams, microphones ) SC.2.178 – Prohibit remote activation of collaborative computing devices and provide indication of devices in use to users present at the device.

Other considerations for remote work security

Be aware of phishing and social engineering attempts related to IT support practices . With IT operations having to support remote workers using various tools and methods, more opportunistic threats are being seen, mimicking activities such as password resets/expirations, help desk remote access, and 3rd party vendor solution alerts.
Protect video and teleconference meeting confidentiality. Settings that require sign-in or have unique meeting IDs/codes help to prevent unauthorized parties from listening in to private communications.

Contact Cytellix: info@cytellix.com

Bad Actors Capitalizing on Chaos

Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:20:00 GMT

In midst of our reactions to a pandemic, the bad actors find cyber vulnerabilities to attack companies. We saw a recent example over the weekend where The US Health and Human Services Department was attacked. The indication was a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack intended to slow the networks to prevent dissemination of critical information on COVID19. While the attack did not do significant damage according to reports, it signals that through the Chaos of the COVID 19 pandemic, bad actors will do anything they can to disrupt the country and take advantage of weaknesses inside of any organization.

As both businesses and consumers are focused on the corona virus, contingency planning, stocking up with supplies, social distancing etc. – these distractions are prime hunting ground for the bad actors to entice us to click, respond and generally lower our cyber-guard. Remember the best practices we have been taught and increase your cyber awareness for other behaviors that may be indicators of compromise.

Stay safe!

www.cytellix.com

Coronavirus & Cyber Diligence

Sat, 14 Mar 2020 00:43:00 GMT

As many organizations have made decisions for the health and safety of their employees to move to a telework model, cyber diligence and resilience will be tested. Employees will now log-in from their homes changing the patterns and normal behaviors of the cyber monitoring. These new locations, IP addresses and user behaviors should throw off cyber alerts for your monitoring and security operations centers (SOC). If they are not alerting, then there is an issue with the cyber monitoring and event management of your solution. If they are alerting, then these are “potentially” false positives. Why potentially?

Verify and validate it is the employee and their new location as a bad actor can take advantage of remote user model to get into your data impersonating a remote employee as part of the new alert noise. There should be a significant amount of new noise for cyber monitoring that needs to vetted for both valid user and valid access. Be diligent during these days of health and safety for both your company and your company employees.

Know who is on your network, always!

www.cytellix.com

Always looking for Talented team members

Fri, 26 Apr 2019 00:00:00 GMT

The post Always looking for Talented team members appeared first on Cytellix .

DoD Supply Chain – THE DEADLINE DELAY IS OVER

Tue, 21 Aug 2018 17:37:00 GMT

The deadline for the supply chain to meet compliance with NIST SP 800-171 under Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) 252.204-7012 was December 31, 2017. As we are all aware, the enforcement and teeth of this deadline was deferred until NOW . By the end of August 2018, all contractors who have been awarded contracts to provide products or services which requires the use of Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), will be put on notice that enforcement will begin with the new government fiscal year starting October 1, 2018. The obligation of proof is placed upon the supplier, their suppliers and their suppliers.

What does this mean for the supply chain under these contracts? Audits will begin on October 1, 2018 for proof of compliance. The two forms of remedies for failing the audits include a Corrective Action Reports (CAR) and/or loss of contract. The end of the “grace period” has come to an end as well as the request for waivers.

What will occur in the audit is not merely a documentation exercise. Many consultants provided support that includes preparing documentation and policies; however, they have not done what is necessary to fulfil the Cyber requirements under these contracts. The obligation and requirements to be compliant is not a paperwork exercise. The complete cybersecurity assessment is an aggregation of technology, networking, security, situational awareness, vulnerability awareness, policies, procedures, and the cyber event reporting obligation.

As mentioned above, the cyber-compliance requirements must be backed up by proof. Proof is defined differently by different people, but, in the end, the burden is on the suppliers to have knowledge, evidence, and awareness of all the cyber controls, implementation, vulnerabilities, real-time cyber events and processes around each control, vs a checklist.

Below are the minimum requirements:

Self-Attestation of the contract obligations for compliance – Attesting to compliance

2. System Security Plan with the following provable elements (updated periodically)

a. System Boundaries – Identify the network map, connections and segmentations initially and through the life of the contract

b. System Environments of Operations - Operating Environment where CUI is stored.

c. How are the security requirements implemented – Both policy, actual evidence and proof of the security requirements are active in real-time.

d. Relationships with or connections to other systems – Real-time situational awareness of connections and system profile information.

3. Plan of Action & Milestones – the detailed plan of cyber gaps and remediation's necessary and updated to show continuous improvements.

4. Incident Response Plan – An approved process defined by the DoD for reporting incidents within 72-hours of the event. The 72-hour time limit is Not negotiable.

5. Be prepared to prove your cyber resiliency with implemented “adequate” cybersecurity controls, cyber event monitoring and processes. If you cannot, your business is at risk from cyber criminals and loss of federal contracts

The time is now to act, and both prepare for compliance and become cyber prepared. The reality is your company is listed in multiple data base directories that you potentially hold CUI – you are a high risk of being attacked. When you are attacked the nation’s, security is at risk. Become cyber prepared and protect the nation, your business and your employees.

www.cytellix.com

Cyber Tips & Tricks for SMBs in All Verticals

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 21:44:00 GMT

Never open email from unknown senders
Right click on email addresses to verify sender’s domain is legitimate, prior to opening an email message. Take a minute and make sure all the spelling and addressing is correct
When in doubt about an email and its intentions, call the sender to verify
Use two step verification / authentication if possible
If it’s being offered for free, it’s never free
Use a modern anti-malware / anti-virus product
Always update security when requested by legitimate publishers
Back-up your data, use multiple places/locations.
Back up your data offline when possible
Do not download applications from unknown publishers or sites
Never share USB keys/drives
Do not open attachments in email messages from suspicious senders – verify sender and intentions
Using mobile devices for browsing is just as risky as laptops for discovering malware and virus’s
Check what ports are open on your network and their behaviors
Segment your network for guest and internal users. And, segment IoT devices from the data networks where possible
Public Wi-Fi networks are very risky for data protection on your devices – use a VPN
Use a secure password manager for all your unique passwords – some are free
Never use the same password 2x
Physical spying takes place as much as digital spying, watch who is looking over your shoulder.
No one is protected from being hacked, you are, will and have been hacked!
Set strong privacy setting on your devices – you don’t want to overshare
Java script in your browser is insecure, disable it!
Always ask yourself questions about communications sent to you, be suspicious is the best practice
Use the best browser available from a security perspective, stay aware of exploits of browsers
Patch, patch, patch!
Pay attention to mobile app permissions and access, some will access very private, personal and proprietary information you want to remain confidential
Clean up (delete) apps you don’t use
Use device passwords to lock and encrypt the data wherever possible – losing a device is painful enough!
Never leave devices set to default
Change Wi-Fi passwords often and never repeat them
Don’t use family names, birthdates, dogs names, and phone numbers as passwords – be unique and complex
Social media has risks associated with personal information – don’t feed the bad guys information they can use against you
Inventory and manage your devices and their IP addresses on your network
Remove any devices that are end-of-life from their manufacturer from your network – they are attack points
Log-out of services like banking when your done with your business
Don’t store UID/PW in cookies on devices, just don’t do it
IoT is pretty cool, but, make sure you manage these IoT devices with the same care as your computer. Attackers are looking for web cams, thermostats, digital assistants and door locks that are not managed properly

Cybersecurity Framework – Simplified

Tue, 30 Jan 2018 18:36:00 GMT

Cybersecurity Framework – Cutting Through the Complexity

Hopefully you spent the holidays with family and friend’s instead of reading the latest publication “Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity” Version 1.1 Draft 2 published by National Institute for Standards and technology (NIST) on December 5, 2017. If you read it, like I did, kudos! I am not saying it was riveting and should be an episodic series based subscription on Amazon or Netflix, but, there are a few areas that should have every business paying attention.

I am a standards fanboy, as they are public and fair for all. Typically they are measurable and help keep the playing field for enforcement fair. The framework here lets the business take some liberties with aligning processes and technologies to meet conformance and compliance. As industries continue to adopt the cybersecurity framework for compliance, reporting and awareness, businesses are the beneficiary for mitigating risk by implementing. Why? As an example, if your business knows its cyber posture today, it can plan to improve using defined objectives, and implement security policies and controls based upon both business objectives, risks, budgets and need. The benefit to the business is both reduced cyber risk and improved employee productivity. A single breech, malware infection, ransomware event, or patching lapse can cause significant business impacts including loss of revenues, increased expenses and countless hours of productivity that can never be recovered. Using the framework model of “Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover” helps your organization complete a comprehensive, unbiased, cyber program. Again, as a fan, this is non-vendor specific framework that is neutral on what technology may or will be required.

Let’s take a short journey through the framework and its applicability.

Identify

Perform a Cybersecurity Assessment to understand assets, roles and responsibilities, policies, procedure, risk management monitoring, gaps and people.

Protect

Implement and manage access to assets and infrastructure. Verify that all security and integrity can be measured across networks, identities, devices, data and systems based upon user profiles and permissions. Deploy training and awareness internally and externally. Align and test all security policies and procedure with practice.

Detect

Continuous monitoring and management for cyber events is enabled; Detection of events, 3 ^rd party connections, unauthorized connections, vulnerability scanning, awareness of cyber events and ownership, and incident response plans and procedure.

Respond

Develop a communication and response plan to a cyber event. Understand the cyber event impact and recovery plans are developed by severity.

Recover

Recovery implementations and improvement plans are maintained and updated using lessons learned. Make sure all stakeholders are who are needed to engage in recovery efforts are in constant communication.

Within the framework and organization will develop both knowledge and skills to become cyber aware, prepared and proactive to cyber events. The tactical process to prepare for the framework includes specific tactics that are outlined below.

Assessments

Assessments vary by type and provider and can be either outsourced or completed internally. The main objective of the assessment is a true, unbiased view of the actual state of cyber controls within an organization. Many of the controls cannot be assessed by just subject matter expertise, but require tools and technology to identify vulnerabilities, cyber gaps and process concern. The assessment should cover all aspects of physical, logical and digital security.

Gap analysis and System Security Plans

Every assessment should include both a written summary and a detailed analysis including identification of high, medium and low priority vulnerabilities. Also included in the assessment is a network diagram of the current configuration of the organizations infrastructure. It is important to understand and isolate vulnerabilities in the infrastructure. In addition to these, digitally collected vulnerabilities need to be identified and classified by their importance for remediation.

Plan of Action and Milestones (POAM)

Onc e the assessment is completed, a task oriented plan is needed. Each gap identified in the assessment needs a logical identifier, owner, solution and alignment with any compliance reference. In addition to the above, adding completion dates, 3 ^rd party technology and dependencies will help drive a budget and or resource conversation. A high quality POAM will help identify internal or external resources, timeframes and project owners making the progress through the cyber framework a systematic approach.

Vulnerability Scanning and Continuous Monitoring

There are specialty tools used to capture and maintain a continuous improvement model for cyber preparedness. A cyber assessment and completion of the PAOM or progression through the cyber framework is a continued effort. Cyber is NOT a one and done event in terms of awareness and continuous understanding of cyber events. Vulnerability scanning should be periodic and scheduled; monthly and quarterly works well for most organizations. Cyber monitoring differs from firewall settings, network monitoring and end-point technology services. The difference is in knowledge and awareness of changes networks, devices and connections. All digital assets, known and unknow, need to be monitored in real-time with the ability to see alerts/changes in real-time that can be acted upon before they manifest into significant cyber events.

The framework model does define the stages needed to improve an organizations cyber posture. Without awareness and a plan, including proactive knowledge of cyber events, it’s a roll of the dice and my money is with the house- it’s a loser roll!

www.cytellix.com

Cyber Hygiene for the New Year

Tue, 19 Dec 2017 00:10:00 GMT

Looking back at 2017 and ahead at 2018, it became clear to me that all the great advice for cyber preparedness is not reaching the small and medium businesses. The questions below were asked of me last week in a presentation in Southern Washington, which prompted me to publish this guidance. Basic hygiene below and a narrative on patching is also included for some holiday reading.

What do I do to protect myself?

1. Have your business cyber assessed

2. Change all your passwords to be unique, do not repeat the same password.

3. Use complex passwords or a password generator

4. Set up monitoring and alerts of banking accounts for money movement

5. Run modern device anti-virus/anti-malware products on all owned devices

6. Make sure you have you don’t have firewall settings at default and use a next generation firewall.

7. Make sure all connected devices are protected and not set to default, segment your data away from IoT devices.

8. Learn about phishing and ransomware best practices

9. Don't surf unknown web sites

10. If mail looks suspicious or your questioning authenticity- investigate

Patching narrative

The issue of deployment of patches or updates by companies is the biggest concern given the public awareness of these broad based cyber/malware attacks. Over the past couple months, the attacks have been based upon the gaps in the “patching” of software or device vulnerabilities. These attackers develop their attacks to automatically detect and exploit these unpatched software or systems that are not updated with the current patch level as the basis for the attack and entrance to a company.

When a device manufacturer such as a network switch, firewall or router is identified as “end of life” EOL, then it either has a technological market disadvantage or a technical flaw that renders the device vulnerable in certain situations. The manufacturer does two things very well: One, they market the advantages of the next new device with all the capabilities and features that are compelling to “buy” or “upgrade”. Secondly, they publicly identify the flaws and gaps and or vulnerabilities with the strongly urged recommendation to upgrade to the new product to occur. This is normal course of business and does provide full disclosure to their customers.

The other side of this coin, is the same publicly known data used to communicate gaps and flaws is used to create distributed attacks on targeted devices. Once a flaw is known, the hacker communities are also aware and start their targeted attacks to enter an organization through the identified flaws. Yes, we are doing a great job telling the hacker communities how to hack. Call it the unintentional, borderline intentional published hack advisory!

Software patches are similar in respect but much more frequent. Microsoft, Google, WordPress, Apple, Adobe as examples typically call the patches security updates or security bulletins. Many of the updates are categorized as Critical, Important or Moderate. They also identify the issue either part of the native vendor products or vulnerabilities in 3 ^rd party applications used by the native applications that can compromise the OEM publisher’s products. The OEM publishers have a significant role to play and this is not trivial work. To be fair, the OEM’s are not intentionally building vulnerable products, they find vulnerabilities over-time in either their native code or 3 ^rd party licensed code and as a system require an update or patch. In addition, each patch update could in theory also inject new unknown flaws, fix one and then start another.

Why don’t companies patch? Process and procedures say wait? Resources are unavailable? Other projects have priorities? Will the patch break proprietary software/systems that run the business? Knowledge of all available patches? Frequency of patches? Likely some or all of these apply to someone you know. Is it worth it? Given what we know about the magnitude of the impact of these recent attacks, why are you waiting to patch?

Proper cyber hygiene could save your company and job!

www.cytellix.com

Malware & Ransomware: SMB Best Practices

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:58:00 GMT

In the wake of the past several weeks of broad and damaging cyber-attacks, it’s important that we talk about proactive measures the small and medium organizations should consider to protect your environment. Many of my colleagues have articulated the damage and origins of the recent attacks: WannaCry & Petya. I find these insights extremely valuable to understand the root and attributions of the malware itself. These publicized reports provide all sized organizations context to the magnitude of the current and future damages these organized type attacks can deliver.

The small and medium business sector has the largest threat landscape for cyber-attacks. The potential damages to the hundreds of thousands of businesses in the USA is an alarming statistic. The questions that consistently are asked by the small and medium business is; what should I do to protect my company? And, how can I afford the equipment, software and human resources required to truly become cyber prepared? Good news! There are options and practical real-world solutions available.

Many smaller organizations don’t have the internal resources to research both the industry standards and proprietary models to understand what is the best cybersecurity approach. A best practice is to use a methodical standards-based approach to build cyber awareness, develop a plan to improve and implement a proactive monitoring solution as an appropriate start to cyber preparedness. Noted below are strategic and tactical plans the small and medium businesses should implement immediately.

Strategic recommendations:

Cybersecurity assessment – understand your current posture to identify vulnerabilities
Gap analysis – a comprehensive view of what needs improvement
Plan of Action – a detailed, real-world and affordable improvement plan
Continuous monitoring – become a proactive cyber aware company to know when changes occur

Tactical recommendations for WannaCry & Petya variants:

Ensure systems are patched and all antivirus programs are up to date
Implement and determine if backup systems are effectively configured
Restore only backups that have been securely managed
Isolate any unpatched systems
Monitor all networks and device connectivity

www.cytellix.com

Trick or Treat – Ransomware is a Trick disguised as a Treat

Tue, 31 Oct 2017 20:37:00 GMT

This time of year, causes me to think about cyber lessons learned, malware related questions from customers and colleagues and all the ghoulish activities we have witnessed in 2017. We have seen obvious phishing mails that are clearly spoofed email addresses or URL’s and have provocative messages to drive users to click. These provoke the users to click the message, open an attachment or a click infected URL that cause the execution of the malware. Another common way to be become infected is through compromised websites that can trigger the installation of an unintentional program download. These are “Tricks” used to cause a user to change their normal behaviors. As we have more and more awareness of Phishing and Ransomware, our ability to be “Tricked” has been reduced, but not eliminated.

Ransomware has now become synonymous with Phishing. The two attack types are merged together into an imbedded encryption attack. The statistics are showing that over 90% of all Phishing attacks now contain Ransomware encryption. The technique of the Phishing mails is changing in the business world to draw employees in and cause the attack to be successful. The emails that are now seen include a personalized message with a correct salutation that includes subjects of interest by job category. These are effective attacks and are gaining popularity. Sophistication of social engineering is improving in these types of attacks.

Ransomware is also getting in to business systems through the vulnerability of operating systems and software. Targeted attacks are being delivered on outdated security software or system software. These types of attacks are broad and successful as we have seen over the past few months. The Malware enters the organization via targeted attacks of known vulnerabilities and they migrate through systems to infect the entire network and its connected devices.

Ransomware works in a very orchestrated manner. Once the ransomware program has been executed it starts communicating with its host to acquire an encryption key. This happens very quickly. Once the program has its key it encrypts the data on a system. The data is then unusable. Encrypted data can “typically” be recovered using the decryption key, but there are no guarantees given the source of the attack. Once the decryption key is delivered back to the program, the process can then be reversed.

The best preparation and organization can take follow many common practices. From updated end-point protection products, to stringent data back-up procedures to patching and updating of software. These along with a cybersecurity process of Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover are extremely valuable for any business. Phishing/Ransomware Employee education and training continues to be a highly valuable process to do on a continual basis.

In addition to developing a Cybersecurity process and following a standardized framework, vulnerability scanning and monitoring network behavior are must have proactive countermeasures.

Lastly, nothing is guaranteed to keep your business safe, but, reducing your attack surface area will be worth the investment. The ability to know in real-time if an attack is in process and the knowledge to remediate or immediately take the suspect system off-line, can save you significant time, energy and money.

www.cytellix.com

Defining CUI – Controlled Unclassified Information for the Manufacturing Segment

Mon, 11 Sep 2017 23:36:00 GMT

The definition of CUI, or Controlled Unclassified Information, by the Department of Defense is challenging for most small and medium manufactures to grapple. The NIST Frameworks for Cybersecurity SP800-171 have defined CUI under the context of “Protecting Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) in Nonfederal Information Systems and Organizations.” The security requirements of 800-171 apply to all components of nonfederal systems and organizations that process, store or transmit CUI, or that provide security protection for such components. I will walk through the various standards and definitions to highlight the specifics that affect our manufacturers who need to meet compliance with the NIST cybersecurity guidelines. As this background currently applies to commercial manufacturing under DOD contracts, the guidance and definitions are in either draft or consideration for other verticals, including financial services, healthcare, food safety, automotive and other related verticals.

What is CUI? According to the National Archives, “Only information that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls pursuant to and consistent with law, regulations, and government-wide policies may be CUI. this excludes all information that is classified under Executive Order 13526 of December 29, 2009, or the atomic Energy act, as amended.” In commercial manufacturing, this would be anything other than COTS (Commercial Off-The-Shelf) and includes modified COTS products. The summary and extension is to any organization that provides a product or solution that is designed for government or modified for government, the information associated with such would be considered CUI. CUI is: (i) provided to the contractor by or on behalf of DoD in connection with the performance of the contract; or (ii) collected, developed, received, transmitted, used, or stored by or on behalf of the contractor in support of the performance of the contract; falls in any of the following categories: (i) controlled technical information, (ii) critical information, (iii) export control (iv), any other information, marked or otherwise identified in the contract, that requires safeguarding or dissemination controls pursuant to and consistent with law, regulations, and government-wide policies (e.g., privacy, proprietary business information).

How do you protect CUI? Provide adequate security to safeguard covered defense information that resides on or is transiting through a contractor’s internal information system or network. Adequate security is defined as implementation of NIST SP800-171 that include the 14-controls for cybersecurity and is required by 12/31/2017. Compliance with 800-171 is considered 100 percent complete with any waivers or deviations approved by the DOD CIO. An organization can demonstrate through Plans of Action (POAM) and System Security Plans (SSPs) that they are in-progress as part of a contractor’s risk management decision of CUI protection by their supply chain.

Cyber incidents are another component of the compliance or CUI program. A cyber incident is an action(s) taken through the use of computer networks that results in a compromise or an actual or potentially adverse effect on an information system and/or the information residing therein. “Compromise” means disclosure of information to unauthorized persons, or a violation of the security policy of a system, in which unauthorized intentional or unintentional disclosure, modification, destruction, or loss of an object, or the copying of information to unauthorized media may have occurred.

What steps must be taken if a cyber incident occurs? Affected parties must:

Review contractor network(s) for evidence of compromise of covered defense information using contractor’s available tools including, but not limited to, identifying compromised computers, servers, specific data and user accounts.

Identify covered defense information that may have been affected in the cyber incident.

According to DFARS Clause 252.204-7013(c)(1), they must rapidly report (within 72 hours of the discovery of an incident) directly to DoD and the subcontractors need to provide the incident report number, automatically assigned by DoD, to the prime Contractor (or next higher-tier subcontractor) as soon as is practical.

The need for critical infrastructure and supply chain cyber improvement has now become a requirement. We are seeing more and more cyberattacks on this market segment that result in the rapid and “unknown” theft of intellectual property, data and designs. Copied and counterfeit products, parts and infrastructure cause damage to the US economy.

The extension of the standards to other vertical markets is not a question of “if,” but a question of “when.” Prepare to adopt the NIST framework in every vertical market as a measurable, identifiable and comprehensive approach to understanding cyber posture of any organization.

*Nationalarchives.gov

**DFARS Clause 252.204-7012(c)(1)

www.cytellix.com

Corporate Cyber Incident Response Plan – Do You Even Have One?

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 23:38:00 GMT

I was messaging with a very good friend and colleague this week and we started chatting about incident response plans. We noted that most people have a plan in place at home; he raised examples around personal security elements such as home alarms, dogs, door locks and cameras. The comment that resonated with me most was, you know what to do when you come home and your home has been burglarized . Call the police, insurance company, etc. He went on to pose the question, what about when your company is electronically burglarized? For most organizations, that question is met with silence.

While burglary in the workplace takes on many forms, we will focus on burglary in the form of cyberattacks. The attacker is “stealing” information from your company for monetary purposes. Yes, the cyberattack is intended to take something from you: data, money or both. Cyber-attackers work systematically and operationally efficiently to pick either high-value targets or high-probability targets to extort what they are targeting—data, intellectual property, personal identifiable information or cash extortion from a ransomware event. It’s a business and the value to the attacker is what they take for future gains or currency to potentially give you back what they have access to or control of. The results of this are highly distracting, expensive and potentially severely impactful to the business.

Circling back to the concept of corporate cyber incident response, what is your answer? Is the first step to call the authorities and FBI? Is it to pay the ransom? Is it time to deploy your Disaster Recovery (DR) policy? Do you even have a DR plan? Have you identified your critical data?

What exactly is the FBI’s role in cyber? The FBI’s role is to hunt down the “bad guys” and prosecute them, plain and simple. Their role is not to recover your assets, cash or data. Should you call the FBI if you are burglarized (cyberattacked)? Absolutely! We want to shut down as many cyber criminals as possible. Should you pay the ransom? Well, that depends—do you have a data recovery plan implemented that remains unscathed by the encryption tactics used by the attacker? If yes, why would you pay? Sometimes organizations need to make a time vs. money decision, as the time to recover may exceed the threshold a company can accept for their business. Law enforcement suggest not paying the ransom, but your business objectives need to drive your decision.

Many organizations talk about the topic of incident response, but very few have a realistic plan. Some suggestions that can help include: building a plan that includes recovery steps, using realistic scenarios and identifying leaders within your company who will drive those decisions. Have a true plan of action that is executable. Do a few tests of the plan “dry run” a few scenarios. Be prepared, be ready, be diligent—the odds prove that this will happen to your company at some point. The small and medium business market is the largest potential target, while also the least prepared.

Start today!

www.cytellix.com

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cybersecurity: It’s All About Behavior!

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 22:50:00 GMT

The latest leading-edge data intelligence topics referred to as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are currently experiencing significant venture and corporate capital investments. Some of the advantages of ingesting large quantities of data and creating a corpus of knowledge to draw insights are very interesting for complex subjects such as cybersecurity, healthcare and financial services. The use cases of AI in healthcare such as DNA/genome research are truly captivating to read. The parallels to cybersecurity research and respective knowledge base for predicting and analyzing data will be step-functions of change needed to understand the data collection and interpretation of threats. The application of any form of AI includes a “people factor,” as directly linked to both ends of a “cyber activity.” A “cyber event” is started by a person and the resolution is implemented and managed by the same.

The behavior part of cybersecurity also involves people, but machine behavior plays a significant role in cyber events. For example, if we can measure a baseline of machine behavior that is “known good,” then we can react—potentially in real-time—to machine changes in behavior. There are many parameters to consider and behaviors that may be considered non-issues to filter; however, having a system of behavioral analytics under the category of AI/ML/ANN brings data-driven decision making.

A few scenarios to outline this include known devices on the network or IoT devices changing their state. In the first case of known devices, this has been a topic we have been discussing in the security space for a very long time. Products and technologies have been built for attestation, key management and device authentication—to capture a few categories. As we move up a level from the cryptography space to understanding the metadata a device produces, we can measure changes, arrival, departure and state. By observing anything with an IP address in relationship to the context of its metadata, we can filter “good” and “bad” activities, behaviors and changes. If a known device comes on the network at 8 am on Monday normally, but an unknown device comes on the network at 3:00 am, we can create an action to change that behavior and thus become proactive in our cyber preparedness. Alternately, if a known device that was once considered “good” starts talking to a “bad” actor site or shows a change in its metadata that is considered out of policy/standard, then actions can be taken to quarantine or remediate accordingly.

In the second example of IoT devices changing their state, we have seen this with IP cameras, and medical devices. The potential case of industrial systems being taken over by the “zombie robot apocalypse” is not as far removed from reality as one might think. Hackers can exploit flaws and create subtle changes to industrial control systems, which could be dramatic in scale or event. I am not suggesting that the machines will take over the world, but I am suggesting close monitoring of IoT devices for behavioral changes that could indicate the presence or possibility of a wider scale issue.

As an industry, we can start to move from a reactive to a proactive state in the category of cyber preparedness. A real-time approach to monitoring device behaviors could reduce cyber event time to discovery from the current industry average of 256 days. The cost of discovery time is escalating every year. Our small and-medium businesses cannot afford the costs of remediation and losses that accompany a cyber event. The statistics of survival for SMBs in a cyber event estimate that roughly 60 percent or 6 out 10 will not be in business in six months.

The current state of cybersecurity necessitates the establishment of continuous monitoring practices—to monitor both known devices on networks and IoT devices changing their state. The innovations of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and artificial neural networks (ANN) are paving the way for a proactive cyber approach.

www.cytellix.com

“Flipper” role in protection of our resources – it’s an IoT fish story!

Wed, 26 Jul 2017 23:59:00 GMT

Many may remember the TV series, “Flipper.” For those who do not remember, the theme and plot is as follows: Flipper, a bottle-nose dolphin, helps to protect his lagoon park and preserve its wild inhabitants. He is instrumental in apprehending criminals and thugs in the park.

How does this story draw parallels to cybersecurity?

This past week, an unnamed North American casino experienced a cybersecurity breach via a fish tank. The casino’s self-cleaning fish tank, programmed via sensors to monitor water temperatures and fish feeding schedules, was targeted by hackers. Through the fish tank system, the cyber thugs broke into the casino’s computer network and downloaded sensitive data to a Finland location.

Connecting the dots of this story back to “Flipper,” the idea of observing and monitoring one’s environment is vitally important. Like Flipper—whose role was to apprehend criminals through observation and data collection—we must remain vigilant, and can no longer blindly trust even the most innocent of devices, such as programmed fish tanks.

Fish tanks are now IoT devices on our networks and, as seen in the case of this casino, can create an open door for clever cyber thugs. Today’s cyber thugs and criminals leave breadcrumbs of information that we can collect to understand the risks associated with certain IT decisions. The same advice and best practices apply to fish tanks as they do to any other sensor on our networks. Understand, Monitor, Prevent and Segment to protect your most critical assets: DATA!

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/19/technology/fish-tank-hack-darktrace/index.html

www.cytellix.com

Where are cybersecurity threats coming from?

Tue, 18 Jul 2017 23:08:00 GMT

There has been a lot of recent news and discussion about several malware variants that have been defined as ransomware attacks. There are and have been other damaging malware attacks, but ransomware popularity is currently very well publicized.

Ransomware attacks are not simple but are commonplace in the market today. These attacks typically find their way into an organization through social engineering. To be more specific, the malware is embedded in an attachment as an executable. There are several outcomes from ransomware that we have seen thus far: an individual machine is encrypted and the decryption key is held for ransom by the attacker and a currency request of a “Bitcoin” is requested to decrypt the machine in question. The nastier variants can traverse from machine to machine through the network, creating a systemwide infection. This attack causes severe networkwide shutdowns, causing an organization to recover through more significant ransom payments, or if the company was prepared, backup remediation steps are taken.

The availability of targets for ransomware attacks is almost unlimited, with small and medium businesses (SMBs) being the most vulnerable. Most SMBs are not well-equipped to handle these attacks. There are a few typical dilemmas the SMBs face: What is a bitcoin and how do I get one/them? We did not prepare our network and back-up processes to remediate the problem. Lastly, law enforcement does not recommend payment to the ransom and there is no guarantee that the attacker will actual provide a legitimate decryption key.

The other type of attack—less publicized but equally damaging—is the “insider threat,” wherein the attacker is currently or was previously authorized to work inside your organization. These individuals can cause incalculable damage to your company. As an example, these can be system level attacks or result in losses of intellectual property. The insider threat is as complex to detect and remediate as an external attack. The differentiator here is the insider knows the weaknesses and knows where to find the most valuable information. As with external threats, experts recommend both employee training and monitoring capabilities to detect real-time behavioral changes.

Some additional processes to help SMBs monitor their employees, networks and behaviors to identify insider and external threats include:

Developing and enforcing policies for access to information systems
Monitoring and auditing inappropriate access – remediating upon discovery
Enforcing authentication and limited login attempt processes
Monitoring printers, downloading (large), queries and email
Deploying real-time networks monitoring for flow, files, connections, ports and suspicious IPs
Managing identities of current and past employees

www.cytellix.com

The Background on Industry Cybersecurity Standards – NIST, CSET, DFARS

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 23:17:00 GMT

How to best understand the Cybersecurity guidance and volumes of information is an ominous challenge? The foundational cybersecurity work produced by NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology) is a comprehensive cybersecurity review. Rather than diving too deep in to NIST and the regulatory nature of the definition of classified vs unclassified information and its protection, I will touch on the value of measuring a commercial organizations cybersecurity posture.

The recommended NIST standards, should you be interested to read, are noted as NIST SP 800-171 http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-171/sp800_171_draft.pdf , published October 18, 2015 identifies a couple very useful tools and premises for measurements. One tool, that is very useful is the CSET (Cyber Security Evaluation Tool) https://cset.inl.gov/SitePages/Home.aspx , which is a self-test, that any organization can use for “free.” While this tool is comprehensive in nature, it does require the user of the tool, to have an in-depth IT and Cyber background to accurately answer the 109 technical questions.

The second very useful part of the NIST publication is the breakdown of measurements into the specific 14-controls: Access Control, Awareness and Training, Auditing and Accountability, Configuration Management, Identification and Authentication, Incident Response, Maintenance, Media Protection, Personnel Security, Physical Protection, Risk Assessment, Security Assessment, System and Communication Protection, System and Information Integrity. By accurately measuring these controls in both a self-test environment (CSET) and using network scanning/situational awareness tools, an organization can get a true grade of their cybersecurity posture to uncover looming vulnerabilities.

The tool (CSET) produces a private result that are defined as a percentage out of 100%, with 100% being equal to compliance. The commercial customer can be measured against a publicly available industry standard, that has been architected to look at a company’s posture without bias. The meaning is to use an industry standard, and by definition, an industry standard is not proprietary. The consulting, technology and solutions market typically use a proprietary methodology to assist in assessments. However, leveraging the standards will give your organization a measurable outcome and baseline for improvements.

Now that we have reviewed the foundations, putting this into practice and having a vision of the effect on your company is an important discussion. Today, any organization, that supplies the federal government with product, solutions or services under a DOD contract, MUST BE COMPLIANT BY 12/31/2017. This date is non-negotiable. Organizations can self-assess or outsource the entire process to cyber experts. There are a few other requirements for compliance beyond providing the 100% System Security Plan, which include a Plan of Action and Milestones (your cyber improvement plan), a gap analysis (what are my company challenges), continuous monitoring and cyber incident reporting processes. The commercial market cyber need is increasing daily, with both compliance, business continuity needs and basic preparedness. The standards approach is a very good methodology and starting place.

Other industries that will see changes for compliance in variations of this standard include: Healthcare, Financial Services, Food Safety, manufacturing and the Small and Medium Businesses (SMB’s). Here are some great references to see where the future of Cybersecurity preparedness is heading.

DFARS 252.204-7012 referenced as contract language for federal NIST 800-171 - designed for non-federal information systems (commercial)
NIST 800-53 cybersecurity framework for Federal information systems
Cybersecurity Framework for critical infrastructure – references NIST 800-53
Health Care Industry Cybersecurity Task Force recommends NIST Cybersecurity framework

Cytellix

MSP SPOTLIGHT: Go Beyond Baseline Security.

94% of MSP clients say they would switch MSPs for a better Cybersecurity solution 1 .

Introduction

Current MSP Model

What are SMB clients asking for?

2 Distinct, But Interconnected Sides of the Coin

MSPs Face Challenges as Well

Time to Rethink: How can we better serve our SMB clients?

The Future of Cybersecurity for MSPs. Give your SMB clients the enterprise-level cybersecurity protection they need.

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Trick or Treat – Ransomware is a Trick disguised as a Treat

Defining CUI – Controlled Unclassified Information for the Manufacturing Segment

Corporate Cyber Incident Response Plan – Do You Even Have One?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cybersecurity: It’s All About Behavior!

“Flipper” role in protection of our resources – it’s an IoT fish story!

Where are cybersecurity threats coming from?

The Background on Industry Cybersecurity Standards – NIST, CSET, DFARS

94% of MSP clients say they would switch MSPs for a better Cybersecurity solution ¹ .